Food-borne streptococcal pharyngitis in a hospital pediatrics clinic
M. D. Decker, G. B. Lavely, R. H. Hutcheson Jr and W. Schaffner
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.
