Food-Borne Streptococcal Pharyngitis in a Hospital Pediatrics Clinic

Abstract

After a potluck luncheon, more than half the staff of a hospital pediatrics clinics became ill. Group A Streptococcus (M precipitin, nontypable; T agglutination type, 8/25; and serum opacity reaction, positive) was isolated from 12 of the 20 ill persons. Food-consumption analysis implicated a rice dressing as the vehicle of transmission. The dressing was prepared by a clinic employee in whom pharyngitis had developed three weeks before the luncheon. This is an unusual outbreak in that the implicated food product was not institutionally or commercially prepared and was not preponderantly composed of milk, eggs, or meat.

Streptococcal contamination of food: an unusual cause of epidemic pharyngitis

“…Inoculation by hands contaminated with respiratory secretions is possible in these cases too [5]. Table 3 shows that almost all the salads that caused the epidemics were prepared 24 h before they were served [2,5,6,8,11,14,15,17]. The time that passed between inoculation and infection allowed the germ to multiply to an infective dose.…”

“…Foods, which were neither boiled during preparation, nor kept in proper refrigerating facilities [2,7,[9][10][11][12]17], were prone to develop an infective inoculum of the germ. The fact that some of the foods were kept out of the refrigerator several hours before they were served contributed to the multiplication of the germ and evolution of the epidemics [6,7,[10][11][12]15].…”

“…Food-borne epidemics of streptococcal pharyngitis differ from airborne epidemics in that they begin abruptly and have a low complication rate [3,14]. The character of the epidemic curve suggests that the outbreaks have a common-source [10,15]. The most reliable way of defining food-borne streptococcal pharyngitis is by obtaining an identical positive culture from the throat of the patient and from the food.…”

Foodborne Outbreak of Group G Streptococcal Pharyngitis in a School Dormitory in Osaka, Japan

“…In GGS-and GAS-mediated foodborne outbreaks, the cook or a patient is often reported as a carrier. Cases of causative "dressing" have also been reported (33), in which the cook was also a carrier of GAS. The one S. dysgalactiae subsp.…”

Genetic relatedness of group A streptococci of the newly designated serotype M90 causing a food-borne outbreak and sporadic infections

“…Food-borne streptococcal epidemics have been previously documented [8,9]. During the last 20 years their incidence declined and this has been attributed to the proper use of food refrigeration, cleanliness and compulsory pasteurization of fresh milk [10,11]. Recently, a large food-borne outbreak due to a newly designated M type (M90) occurred in a Greek boarding school [12].…”