We talk with people every day who want to know whether they may have a viable food poisoning case. Here is how we go about answering that question for them.
First, it is important to understand that most food poisoning illnesses are never specifically identified. Almost everyone has suffered from food poisoning at one time or another in their lives. The most common symptoms of food poisoning are abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and/or fever. These symptoms can be caused by the ingestion of thousands of different types of bacteria.
Cultures determine the species of bacteria
To determine which bacteria is causing the symptoms requires a physician to perform a culture of stool, urine, or blood. The physician takes a sample from the patient and sends it to the laboratory. The laboratory technician then places the sample in a medium which encourages bacteria to grow. The culture can take anywhere from 12 hours to 3 days to complete. When the culture is complete, the lab technician looks at it under a microscope and makes a positive identification of the species of bacteria present (i.e. e coli, salmonella, etc.). This information is then reported back to the doctor, who can prescribe the correct treatment for that bacterial infection.
It is important to note that in most mild cases, doctors do not order a culture and simply treat the symptoms. Even when a culture is ordered, the detection of bacteria can be very difficult. When examining each of these cultures, the laboratory technician is asked to segregate a particular type of bacteria from thousands of other bacteria which are normally present in the cultures. In addition, cultures taken from people who have already started a course of antibiotics are less likely to produce positive results, even if those persons are infected. As a result, only a very small portion of food borne illnesses are officially detected and reported nationwide.
Positive results are reported to the health department and CDC
By law, a doctor is required to report to the local health department a positive test result for any reportable disease (such as salmonella, e coli, or shigella, for example). The local health department monitors these reports. Most of the time, the health department will then perform a kind of “DNA fingerprinting” on the laboratory sample to determine the exact genetic serotype of the bacteria by a process call pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE).
The health department then sends the PFGE results to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), who monitors all reportable food borne illnesses in the United States. The CDC will immediately declare an outbreak and alert state and local officials if two or more persons produce the same PFGE results - which indicates that those persons became ill from a common food source.
The health departments interview persons with identical PFGE results to find the source
Once an outbreak has been identified, public health officials then conduct intensive investigations. This includes visiting the suspected manufacturing plant, taking numerous samples from different areas of the plant, and searching through corporate documents and testing results. The investigators will also attempt to interview all of the persons with the identical PFGE results, to determine what common food source was consumed. The infected persons are asked to identify everything they ate within the week prior to the onset of illness. Sometimes, as an investigation narrows, an infected person may be interviewed 2 or 3 times. Once the common food source is identified, the food manufacturer is notified, food production is halted, and the tainted food is recalled.
The CDC identifies confirmed cases
The CDC, in conjunction with the local and state health departments, will then provide a definition of a “confirmed case.” A confirmed case is normally defined as a laboratory-confirmed infection with a PFGE result matching the outbreak and an illness onset within a specific time period.
So how do I know if I have a case?
If your stool, urine, or blood culture tests positive for a reportable disease (salmonella, e coli, shigella, etc.) AND you are contacted and interviewed by a local or state health department, then you may have a confirmed case related to an identified outbreak. If so - then you need to contact a lawyer right away to understand your legal rights. We at Simon & Luke provide consultations free of charge, and are happy to answer any questions you may have. Call us toll free at 1-888-335-4901.
