…but the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture deliver the goods!

Once again, our laboratory and that of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture,  in conjunction with our fine epidemiology folks who comprise Team Diarrhea, have solved a Salmonella outbreak that has sickened 410 people, 30 of them Minnesota residents.

Here is the press release from Monday of this week:

The Minnesota Departments of Agriculture and Health today announced that laboratory analyses have confirmed a genetic match between the strains of Salmonella bacteria found in a container of King Nut brand creamy peanut butter and the strains of bacteria associated with 30 illnesses in Minnesota and nearly 400 illnesses around the country.

MDA lab tests conducted last week discovered Salmonella bacteria in a 5-pound package of King Nut peanut butter collected from a long-term care facility associated with one of the reported illnesses. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) issued a product advisory on Friday alerting institutions that may have received the product. MDA and MDH scientists performed additional testing this weekend to verify the connection between the contaminated product and the illnesses.

State officials initially discovered the contaminated product through product testing conducted after MDH epidemiological evidence and an investigation by MDA’s Rapid Response Team implicated King Nut creamy peanut butter as a likely source of Salmonella infections in Minnesota residents. In the product advisory issued Friday, state officials urged establishments who may have the product on hand to avoid serving it, pending further instructions as the investigation progresses…

King Nut peanut butter is produced by Peanut Corporation of America, of Lynchburg, Va., and is distributed in seven states by Ohio-based King Nut Companies. The product was distributed in Minnesota to establishments such as long-term care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities, restaurants, delis, cafeterias and bakeries. King Nut Companies reports that the product is not distributed for retail sale to consumers, and has voluntarily withdrawn the product from distribution.

Minnesota officials continue to coordinate their investigation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states.

Yes, I’m proud of where I work: the Enterics laboratory at the Minnesota Department of Health. Are we good at what we do? No question about it. Yes, we are. Are we better than a lot of State Health Departments out there in the U.S.? Apparently so.

Should we be better than many other states in this Union? No. Any State Health Department should have the capability to track down the source of such an outbreak.

Look at the breakdown of cases by state according to the CDC website:

As of Monday, January 12, 2009, 410 persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 43 states. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (1), Arizona (8), Arkansas (3), California (55), Colorado (9), Connecticut (6), Georgia (5), Hawaii (1), Idaho (10), Illinois (5), Indiana (4), Iowa (1), Kansas (2), Kentucky (3), Maine (4), Maryland (7), Massachu setts (40), Michigan (20), Minnesota (30), Missouri (8), Mississippi (1), Nebraska (1), New Hampshire (10), New Jersey (13), New York (12), Nevada (6), North Carolina (1), North Dakota (10), Ohio (53), Oklahoma (2), Oregon (5), Pennsylvania (12), Rhode Island (4), South Dakota (2), Tennessee (9), Texas (5), Utah (3), Vermont (4), Virginia (17), Washington (11), West Virginia (2), Wisconsin (3), and Wyoming (2). Among the 388 persons with dates available, illnesses began between September 3 and December 31, 2008, with most illnesses beginning after October 1, 2008. Patients range in age from <1 to 98 years; 48% are female. Among persons with available information, 18% were hospitalized and the infection may have contributed to three deaths.

43 states have been involved since September! 55 cases were diagnosed in California, 53 in Ohio, 40 in Massachusetts, 20 in Michigan, 17 in Virginia. Minnesota had 30 of the 410 cases, but again rose to the top and pulled together the data to find the source. C’mon, let’s give us some competition for these honors, California, Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia! We’d gladly share the glory with you if it meant getting the source of these outbreaks figured out faster and better for the health and safety of all U.S. citizens.

But in the meantime, I’m glad to be a Minnesotan and work for this fine State Health Department.