Health Authorities Probe E.Coli Outbreak Linked to Blue Cheese

06 Sep 2016 --- Health Protection Scotland is preparing a report into an outbreak of E. coli 0157 involving 20 confirmed cases of the same strain which has led to the death of one child and hospital treatment for many other people.

A statement identifies Dunsyre Blue cheese as the most likely cause of the outbreak following epidemiological investigations. Despite extensive investigations, including looking for other possible food sources, no other link to a majority of cases could be established, says Health Protection Scotland. No new cases have been identified for several weeks and no one has fallen ill since the voluntary recall of the product on July 29.

However Errington Cheese heavily denies a connection claiming that its own tests have revealed no link to E.coli. 

Chair of the IMT, Dr Alison Smith-Palmer said: “On behalf of the IMT, I would like to take this opportunity to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of the child who has died. Our thoughts are with them at this time and we ask that their privacy be respected.” All confirmed cases became unwell prior to the end of July. As there have been no new cases since then the IMT will now stand down and work to produce its final report."

E. coli 0157 infection can occur after eating food or drinking water that is contaminated with the faeces from infected animals, or from contact with animals or their environments.

A statement from Errington Cheese says: “All our testing, covering a period of almost six months from 21 March to date, is completely clear of E.coli 0157. All authority testing is negative for E.coli 0157. All customer testing for E.coli 0157 is negative. All farm testing for E.coli 0157 is negative. At least six samples have been taken from the implicated batch D14; they all tested negative for E.coli 0157,” says a company statement originally dated August 13. 

“We haven’t been shown the outbreak report, the food histories of those affected (names redacted), or any other supporting documentation. All we have seen is a flowchart (based, we know, on inaccurate data) and brief summary, both of which were issued at the time of our voluntary recall of the cheese. The flow chart only relates to nine out of 19 cases of illness, not all of whom had eaten any blue cheese.”

“We don’t know why IMT (Incident Management Team) concluded that cheese batches C22 and D14 were responsible for illness as the wholesalers who supplied all the restaurants did not keep a record of which batches went to which customer; any of 10 batches might have been supplied to these restaurants. We know from both our and the authorities’ tests that D14 was negative for E.coli.”

“From what we can gather all cases had an onset of symptoms between 1st -15th July (two week period). However, our cheese was available over a 8/ 9 week period. From this we conclude that the outbreak was more likely to have been caused by something with a shorter shelf life or not by a food at all.”

In July a new study found that Enterohaemorrhagic E.coli, a major cause of food poisoning in the UK with approximately 1,200 cases every year,  could be capable of suppressing the immune system. 

Meanwhile the World Health Organization’s (WHO) says Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a bacterium that is commonly found in the gut of humans and warm-blooded animals. Most strains of E. coli are harmless. Some strains however, such as enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), can cause severe foodborne disease. It is transmitted to humans primarily through consumption of contaminated foods. EHEC produces toxins, known as verotoxins or Shiga-like toxins because of their similarity to the toxins produced by Shigella dysenteriae.

Symptoms of the diseases caused by EHEC include abdominal cramps and diarrhoea and fever and vomiting may also occur. Most patients recover within 10 days, but in a small proportion of patients (particularly young children and the elderly), the infection may lead to a life-threatening disease, such as haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS). HUS is characterized by acute renal failure, haemolytic anaemia and thrombocytopenia, it adds.