Editorials

Raw milk cheeses and salmonella

In this week's BMJ Desenclos et al (p 91) describe a nationwide outbreak in France of 273 confirmed infections with Salmonella paratyphi B.¹ The source of the infections was traced to cheese made from unpasteurised goats' milk. A third of the patients were so ill that they were admitted to hospital, and one died. As with most outbreaks of food poisoning, the patients with confirmed infection were probably only a minority of those affected. The outbreak began during the second week of August 1993 and continued until the second week of October, two months later. The questions that must be asked are, how could an outbreak of infection with such a serious pathogen with a common source have continued uncontrolled for so long and why was the source not identified sooner?

It was estimated by the authors that production of contaminated . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

CSM should rethink its approach for such announcements

Sarah Stewart-Brown and Celia Pyper
BMJ 1996 312: 576. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Keene, W. E. (1999). Lessons From Investigations of Foodborne Disease Outbreaks. JAMA 281: 1845-1847 [Full text]  
• Kerr, K G, Nice, C. S, Lacey, R. W (1996). Cheese and salmonella infection. BMJ 312: 1099-1099 [Full text]  
• Rose, E. (1996). Cheese lovers should not be condemned to a pasteurised and tasteless product. BMJ 312: 1099a-1099 [Full text]  
• Campbell, D M, Cowden, J M, Morris, G, Reilly, W J, O'Brien, S J (1996). All milk products should be heat treated. BMJ 312: 1099b-1099 [Full text]  
• Cunynghame, A. (1996). Exceptional cheeses can be made only from raw milk. BMJ 312: 1099c-1100 [Full text]  
• Stewart-Brown, S., Pyper, C. (1996). CSM should rethink its approach for such announcements. BMJ 312: 576a-576 [Full text]