Food-Borne Streptococcal Pharyngitis in a Hospital Pediatrics Clinic
- Michael D. Decker, MD, MPH;
- Gail B. Lavely, RN;
- Robert H. Hutcheson Jr, MD, MPH;
- William Schaffner, MD
- From the Division of Field Services, Epidemiology Program Office, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta (Dr Decker); the Tennessee Department of Health and Environment, Nashville (Drs Decker, Hutcheson, and Schaffner); and the Department of Preventive Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tenn (Ms Lavely and Dr Schaffner).
Abstract
After a potluck luncheon, more than half the staff of a hospital pediatrics clinic 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.
(JAMA 1985;253:679-681)
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to Division of Field Services, Epidemiology Program Office, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA 30333 (Dr Decker).
