Direct inoculation of food as the cause of an outbreak of group A streptococcal pharyngitis.

Abstract

An investigation was conducted of a food-related outbreak of group A streptococcal pharyngitis following an elementary school banquet. Of 166 surveyed banquet attendees, 71 (43%) reported outbreak-associated pharyngitis, and 21 (88%) of 24 tested attendees had evidence of group A streptococcus (GAS) in the throat. Attendees who ate macaroni and cheese were three times more likely to develop pharyngitis than those who did not (66/132 [50%] vs. 5/30 [17%], P = .002). None of the food handlers had GAS recovered by throat culture. However, the cook who prepared the macaroni and cheese had a hand wound; a wound culture grew GAS with the same T agglutination pattern and M- and/or opacity factor type as that of all available GAS strains from ill attendees. Under laboratory conditions, macaroni and cheese supported rapid growth of the outbreak-associated strain of GAS. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first documented foodborne outbreak of GAS pharyngitis in which the only apparent source of contamination was a food handler's skin lesion.

• Authors: T A Farley, S A Wilson, F Mahoney, K Y Kelso, D R Johnson, E L Kaplan
• Journal: The Journal of infectious diseases (J Infect Dis) Vol. 167 Issue 5 Pg. 1232-5 (May 1993) ISSN: 0022-1899 [Print] United States
• PMID: 8486961 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Topics

• Disease Outbreaks
• Food Microbiology
• Humans
• Louisiana (epidemiology)
• Pharyngitis (epidemiology, microbiology)
• Streptococcal Infections (epidemiology, microbiology)
• Streptococcus pyogenes