Nationwide Salmonella outbreak linked to imported Andrew & Williamson cucumbers

Cucumber Salmonella Outbreak Not Andrew & Williamson’s First

September 24, 2015 by News Desk 

Food Poisoning Bulletin

The nationwide Salmonella outbreak linked to imported Andrew & Williamson cucumbers is not the first illness outbreak linked to produce imported by that company. In 1997, a hepatitis A outbreak that sickened 260 faculty members and students in four different school districts in Calhoun county, Michigan was linked to strawberries sold by A&W. One student needed a liver transplant after this outbreak.




A report that was part of a TED talk at American University states that strawberries served in school lunches “were traced to a processing plant in San Diego, known as Andrew and Williamson.” The company shipped strawberries from the same lot to schools in five other states, including Arizona, southern California, Georgia, Iowa, and Tennessee.
As a result, the CDC and local officials set up clinics in the schools, giving the children immune globulin shots to protect them against the disease. Hundreds  of children had to be immunized as a result of this outbreak, even though the vaccinations were limited to children who ate the fruit.

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California Hardest Hit by Deadly Cucumber Salmonella Outbreak

September 24, 2015 by Linda Larsen 

Food Poisoning Bulletin

California has been hardest hit by the Salmonella Poona outbreak linked to cucumbers imported by Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce. At least 120 people are sick in that state, and one person has died. Andrew & Williamson is based in San Diego, California.




That state originally warned consumers about the outbreak on September 4, 2015, the day that Andrew & Williamson recalled the product. Government officials informed the company that there was an epidemiologic association between the cucumbers and the outbreak. The San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency found one of the outbreak strains on cucumbers that were collected from the Andrew & Williams facility.

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Salmonella in Cucumbers Sickens 85 in Arizona, 1 Dead

September 23, 2015 by Carla Gillespie 

Food Poisoning Bulletin

Salmonella in cucumbers has sickened at least 85 people in Arizona, killing one of them, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. The cases, which have been reported from Apache, Coconino, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, and Yuma counties,  are part of a 33-state outbreak that has sickened 558 people.

 

The outbreak has been linked to cucumbers grown in Mexico and distributed in the U.S. by Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce of San Diego, California.  Three strains of Salmonella Poona are associated with this outbreak. Four state health departments – Arizona, California, Montana, and Nevada – have isolated Salmonella from Andrew & Williamson cucumbers collected from various locations. The Nevada, Arizona and Montana health departments have all isolated outbreak strains from cucumbers collected from retail locations. And the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency isolated one of the outbreak strains from cucumbers collected from the Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce facility.

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At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list. Depraved Indifference or Premeditated Murder?

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Deaths tied to VA hospital's secret list

(CNN)

The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources.

For six months, CNN has been reporting on extended delays in health care appointments suffered by veterans across the country and who died while waiting for appointments and care. But the new revelations about the Phoenix VA are perhaps the most disturbing and striking to come to light thus far.

Internal e-mails obtained by CNN show that top management at the VA hospital in Arizona knew about the practice and even defended it.

Dr. Sam Foote just retired after spending 24 years with the VA system in Phoenix. The veteran doctor told CNN in an exclusive interview that the Phoenix VA works off two lists for patient appointments:

There's an "official" list that's shared with officials in Washington and shows the VA has been providing timely appointments, which Foote calls a sham list. And then there's the real list that's hidden from outsiders, where wait times can last more than a year.

Deliberate scheme, shredded evidence

"The scheme was deliberately put in place to avoid the VA's own internal rules," said Foote in Phoenix. "They developed the secret waiting list," said Foote, a respected local physician.

The VA requires its hospitals to provide care to patients in a timely manner, typically within 14 to 30 days, Foote said.

According to Foote, the elaborate scheme in Phoenix involved shredding evidence to hide the long list of veterans waiting for appointments and care. Officials at the VA, Foote says, instructed their staff to not actually make doctor's appointments for veterans within the computer system.

Instead, Foote says, when a veteran comes in seeking an appointment, "they enter information into the computer and do a screen capture hard copy printout. They then do not save what was put into the computer so there's no record that you were ever here," he said.

According to Foote, the information was gathered on the secret electronic list and then the information that would show when veterans first began waiting for an appointment was actually destroyed.

"That hard copy, if you will, that has the patient demographic information is then taken and placed onto a secret electronic waiting list, and then the data that is on that paper is shredded," Foote said.

"So the only record that you have ever been there requesting care was on that secret list," he said. "And they wouldn't take you off that secret list until you had an appointment time that was less than 14 days so it would give the appearance that they were improving greatly the waiting times, when in fact they were not."

I feel very sorry for the people who work at the Phoenix VA. They all wish they could leave 'cause they know what they're doing is wrong.
Dr. Sam Foote

Foote estimates right now the number of veterans waiting on the "secret list" to see a primary care physician is somewhere between 1,400 and 1,600.

Doctor: It's a 'frustrated' staff

"I feel very sorry for the people who work at the Phoenix VA," said Foote. "They're all frustrated. They're all upset. They all wish they could leave 'cause they know what they're doing is wrong.

"But they have families, they have mortgages and if they speak out or say anything to anybody about it, they will be fired and they know that."

Several other high-level VA staff confirmed Foote's description to CNN and confirmed this is exactly how the secret list works in Phoenix.

Foote says the Phoenix wait times reported back to Washington were entirely fictitious. "So then when they did that, they would report to Washington, 'Oh yeah. We're makin' our appointments within -- within 10 days, within the 14-day frame,' when in reality it had been six, nine, in some cases 21 months," he said.

November: A dire situation in South Carolina

Thomas Breen was so proud of his time in the Navy that he wanted to be treated only at a VA facility, his family says.

In the case of 71-year-old Navy veteran Thomas Breen, the wait on the secret list ended much sooner.

"We had noticed that he started to have bleeding in his urine," said Teddy Barnes-Breen, his son. "So I was like, 'Listen, we gotta get you to the doctor.' "

Teddy says his Brooklyn-raised father was so proud of his military service that he would go nowhere but the VA for treatment. On September 28, 2013, with blood in his urine and a history of cancer, Teddy and his wife, Sally, rushed his father to the Phoenix VA emergency room, where he was examined and sent home to wait.

"They wrote on his chart that it was urgent," said Sally, her father-in-law's main caretaker. The family has obtained the chart from the VA that clearly states the "urgency" as "one week" for Breen to see a primary care doctor or at least a urologist, for the concerns about the blood in the urine.

"And they sent him home," says Teddy, incredulously.

Sally and Teddy say Thomas Breen was given an appointment with a rheumatologist to look at his prosthetic leg but was given no appointment for the main reason he went in.

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Veterans dying waiting for healthcare

Are we fulfilling our promise to veterans?

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• Veterans die after being placed on VA Hospital's secret waiting list
• Veterans Languish and Die on VA Hospital's Secret Waiting List: Report
• CNN: 40+ vets die on secret PHX VA waiting list
• Doctor: Phoenix VA managers tried to hide long waits
• 40 veterans die while on VA hospital's secret wait list: report
• Veterans in Arizona die after going on VA Hospital's secret waiting list
• A fatal wait: Veterans languish and die on a VA hospital's secret list

Helados La Tapatia Recalls Ice Cream for Possible Listeria

Food Poisoning Bulletin

March 20, 2014 by Linda Larsen

Helados La Tapatia, Inc. is recalling ice cream, popsicles, fruit bars and cups, adn bolis because they may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. No illnesses have been reported to date, but listeriosis can take up to 70 days after exposure to make someone sick.

The products include Fruit Bars, Milk Bars, Bolis, Ice Cream Containers, Ice Cream Cups, Ice Cream Sandwiches, and Frutero. The recalled products were sold in Arizona, California, Nevada, Washington, Guam, and Canada in retail stores. The products are sold under the brand names of Helados La Tapatia and Icesations.


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• Listeria prompts recall of ice cream, fruit products by California company

New Update for Stores Selling Recalled Rancho Feeding Beef

Food Poisoning Bulletin

February 22, 2014 by Linda Larsen




  The stores added to the list include Circle K stores in California, Pavilions in California, Safeway in Arizona, California, and Nevada, Vons in California and Nevada, and Winco in California, Idaho, and Washington state. The number of stores that may have carried the products has grown to include more than 2,100 stores. More than 1,200 of those facilities are in California.

Please look carefully at the retail distribution list and the list of products that have been recalled. If you purchased any of these products at those locations, or at other locations, do not eat them. Discard them or return to the place of purchase for a refund.


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