An outbreak of staphylococcal food poisoning in Europe caused by contaminated lasagne was detected and monitored by both national and international surveillance systems. The common source was a pasta-producing factory in Italy and high levels of Staphylococcus aureus were detected in packets of dried lasagne distributed in Luxembourg, the UK, France and Italy. Forty-seven cases were reported in the UK. Outbreaks of staphylococcal food poisoning attributed to mishandling during the food processing stage are uncommon and pasta as the food vehicle is rare. Prompt recognition of the outbreak and rapid identification of the food vehicle enabled most of the consignment to be withdrawn from the market.
AKU ELZEIN, E. M. E. Recovery of bluetongue virus serogroup from sera collected for a serological survey from apparently healthy cattle, from the Sudan, 529 ADESIYUN, A. A. see ALABI, D. A. ALAHI, D. A. and ADESIYUN, A. A. Studies on microbial quality of filtered water in households of a university community in Nigeria, 239 ANDERSON, M. J. see NOKES, D. J. ANDERSON, R. M. and GRENFELL, B. T. Quantitative investigations of different vaccination policies for the control of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) in the United Kingdom, 305 ANDERSON, R. M. see NOKES, D. J. ARITA, I., WICKETT, J. and FENNER, F. Impact of population density on immunization programmes, 459 ASHWORTH, L. A. E. see CONLAN, J. W. AURELI, P. see WOOLAWAY, M. C. AVILLEZ, MARIA FRANCISCA and PAIXAO, MARIA TERESA. Excretion of faecal viruses during the first year of life including attendance at a day nursery in Lisbon, Portugal, 545 AYLIFFE, G. A. J. see ROTTER, M. L.
An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the rapid diagnosis of antibiotic-associated colitis (AAC) is presented. Commercially available antisera to Clostridium difficile toxins contain antibodies to other antigens found in non-toxigenic C. difficile and other bacteria. Removal of these unwanted antibodies by absorption increased the specificity of ELISA for detection of C. difficile toxins. Specimens tested included 40 faecal extracts positive for cytotoxicity from cases of AAC, 30 diarrhoeic and 30 well-formed stools negative for cytotoxicity and 50 culture filtrates of toxigenic and non-toxigenic C. difficile and other clostridial species. Use of absorbed sera reduced false-positive reactions observed with faecal specimens from 23 to 8%. About 90% of specimens that were positive by the tissue culture cytotoxicity test were positive by ELISA using the absorbed sera. The relative merits of ELISA and other methods for the rapid diagnosis of AAC are discussed.
Summary Influenza surveillance in the UK between the years 1982 and 1985 has demonstrated the regular winter appearance of influenza A virus of both H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes and influenza B. Their antigenic diversity is described and correlated with the national statistics for morbidity and mortality for influenza. One unexpected finding has been that despite the wide circulation of influenza viruses there has been a continuation of winters without significant increases in influenza deaths or morbidity. A previous report of influenza surveillance (Pereira & Chakraverty, 1982) noted an already unusual series of three consecutive winters with this pattern. This report records a further 4 years bringing a total of seven successive winters without evidence of epidemics of severe disease associated with influenza viruses, as indicated by the national UK statistics.
