Salmonella and Hepatitis Outbreaks Start Up as Government Shuts Down
http://truth-out.org/news/item/19375-salmonella-and-hepatitis-outbreaks-start-up-as-government-shuts-down
Food-borne pathogens are not cooperating with the Republican shutdown of the US government.
In fact, they are busy sickening and killing Americans in more than 18 states, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are scrambling to recall furloughed employees to deal with a dangerous food-borne salmonella outbreak and a lethal Hepatitis outbreak in Hawaii.
The dual outbreaks have been linked to contaminated Foster Farms chicken products and the Dallas-based USPLabs LLC dietary supplement, OxyElite Pro. The outbreaks have sickened more than 300 people so far, killed one and hospitalized 87, with reports of antibiotic resistance for the precipitating strain of salmonella Heidelberg. No recall is currently in effect for Foster Farms chicken, but USPLabs LLC has ceased distributing the supplement until the FDA investigation is complete.
US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) inspectors have not been affected by the ongoing government shutdown as many meat and poultry facilities cannot legally operate without a USDA inspector on site. But more than 45 percent of all FDA employees have been furloughed, leaving daily operations such as crucial inspections of food imports on hiatus until the government reopens. The CDC, which functions as the detective agency for the FDA and FSIS, was down to a skeleton crew of just 10 employees in its food-borne illness division when the latest outbreaks occurred. Since the government shutdown began 11 days ago, these 10 employees have been struggling to maintain the constant updates required by the CDC's nationwide PulseNet database for tracking food-borne pathogens and outbreaks. All federal and state agencies across the United States rely on this database for their work on food safety....
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