Cyclospora traced to imported berries.The case of the apparently infectious berries has been solved. Investigators at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. in Atlanta have traced this summer's epidemic of diarrheal disease to raspberries imported from Guatemala. The outbreak, the largest on record in the United States, was caused by Cyclospora cayetanensis Cyclospora cayetanensis Parasitology A Cryptosporidium-like coccidian protozoan, family Eimeriidae, which is implicated in episodic traveler's diarrhea; it infects the GI tract of immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts–especially with AIDS. , a parasite that thrives in the small intestine small intestine Long, narrow, convoluted tube in which most digestion takes place. It extends 22–25 ft (6.7–7.6 m), from the stomach to the large intestine. (SN: 7/6/96, p. 7). C. cayetanensis, first recognized as a source of illness in 1977, caused more than 900 confirmed cases in 20 states and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec this summer, according to the CDC's July 9 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) is a weekly epidemiological digest for the United States published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 5 June 1981 issue of the MMWR published the cases of five men in what turned out to be the first report of AIDS. . Most people with confirmed cases of the illness had eaten raspberries that could be traced back to Guatemala. Hundreds of other cases are still being investigated, says Barbara L. Herwaldt, an epidemiologist at CDC See Control Data, century date change and Back Orifice. CDC - Control Data Corporation . Investigators are still trying to determine how the raspberries became contaminated, Herwaldt says. They may have been washed in tainted water, handled by someone whose hands carried the microbe microbe /mi·crobe/ (mi´krob) a microorganism, especially a pathogenic one such as a bacterium, protozoan, or fungus.micro´bialmicro´bic mi·crobe n. , or contaminated during shipping. The CDC has dispatched three scientists to bolster the investigation by reseachers at its field station in Guatemala. Herwaldt said that the CDC is "keeping an open mind" about the possibility that the berries were contaminated in the United States. Although case reports continue to trickle in, the number has fallen off dramatically, a drop that coincides with the end of Guatemala's berry season. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion