Staphylococcus aureus food poisoning among Bulawayo City Council employees, Zimbabwe, 2014

Abstract

Background Bulawayo City Council held an Integrated Result Based Management workshop among 86 employees from August 18–22, 2014 at Ikhwezi Training Centre in Bulawayo City. On August 21, 2014, a report of diarrhoea among Council employees attending the workshop was received. We investigated the outbreak to determine the risk factors associated with diarrhoea at Ikhwezi Training Centre, Bulawayo City.MethodA retrospective cohort study was conducted where 74 Council employees were interviewed on food consumed and presenting signs and symptoms. Stool specimens and hand swabs were collected for culture. Water samples were collected for bacteriological analysis. Food samples were not available. Data were analysed using Epi Info™ to generate frequencies, means, proportions, risk ratios, and attributable risk.ResultsOf the 74 employees interviewed 34 (45.9 %) were males and 40 (54 %) were females. The response rate was 94 %. The common signs and symptoms included abdominal cramps (88.7 %), and watery diarrhoea (86.8 %). The overall attack rate was 71.6 %. Eating stewed chicken (RR = 2.52, 95 % CI 1.30–4.89) served at hour 13:00 during lunch on August 20, 2014 at Ikhwezi Training Centre was the only significant risk factor associated with food poisoning. Drinking purified bottled water [RR = 0.67, 95 % CI (0.57–0.79)] was found to be protective. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the hands and nails of food handlers.ConclusionThe outbreak was due to food poisoning and was most likely caused by the Staphylococcus aureus formed toxins. Stewed chicken served during lunch on August 20, 2014 was the possible source of infection. Contamination might have occurred during food handling and preparation. Training of food handlers in basic food hygiene and safety is recommended.

Large-Scale Staphylococcus aureus Foodborne Disease Poisoning Outbreak among Primary School Children

“…The attack rate found in our study was 38.0%, with common symptoms including vomiting (72; 80.9%), abdominal pain (64; 71.9%), nausea (38; 42.7%), fever (36; 40.4%), and diarrhea (4; 4.5%). Our attack rate is lower than attack rates of 71% to 74% reported for previous outbreaks [20,21].…”

Food handling practice and associated factors among food handlers working in food establishments in Woldia town, Northeast Ethiopia

“…Particularly at public food and drink service establishments, food handlers are the rst responsible bodies to contaminate food by acting as either a biological or physical carrier for many pathogenic organisms (Tessema et al, 2014). Among the most common pathogens that cause food contaminations and raise outbreaks due to food handler's poor personal hygiene and low level of food handling practice, few known species are shigella spp (Nygren et al, 2013;Mokhtari et al, 2012;Mama and Alemu, 2016;Saeed and Hamid, 2010), salmonella spp (Mama and Alemu, 2016;Camps et al, 2005;Abera et al, 2010;Saeed and Hamid, 2010), Staphylococcus aureus (Argudin et al, 2012;Wakabayashi et al, 2018;Dagnew et al, 2012;Wattinger et al, 2012;Gumbo et al, 2015;Saeed and Hamid, 2010;El-Shenawy et al, 2013;Rall et al, 2010;Jorda et al, 2012;Simsek et al, 2009), Listeria monocytogenes (Munoz et al, 2013), Escherichia coli (Eltai et al, 2018;Shin et al, 2015;Sanneh et al, 2018), Giardia lamblia, Ascaris lumbricoide, and Entamoeba histolytica (Dagnew et al, 2012;Abera et al, 2010;Saeed and Hamid, 2010), Norovirus (Liu et al, 2015;Coutts et al, 2017).…”

Evidence on food control in charitable food assistance programs: a systematic scoping review

“…This can result in microbiological contamination of food [15, 20–23]. In this study, we describe microbiological contamination of food as enabling pathogens to come into contact with food and, in some cases, to survive and multiply in sufficient numbers to cause illness in consumers [24, 25].…”