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MMWR articles are embargoed until 4 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday. |
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| MMWR Synopsis | |
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Click here for MMWR home page. Synopsis April 16, 1999
Outbreaks of Shigella sonnei Infection Associated with Eating Fresh Parsley -- United
States and Canada, July-August 1998 |
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| PRESS CONTACT: Sonja Olsen, Ph.D. CDC, National Center for Infectious Diseases (404) 639-2206 |
In July and August, 1998, the Minnesota Department of Health and CDC identified 8 restaurant-associated outbreaks of Shigella sonnei infections in the United States and Canada. Epidemiologic investigations of the outbreaks found that 95% of persons with shigellosis ate fresh, chopped parsley. Isolates from 7 of the 8 outbreaks were available for testing by DNA fingerprinting using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE); all had the outbreak PFGE pattern and were resistant to ampicillin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline, sulfisoxazole, and streptomycin. Farm A in Baja California, Mexico was the possible source for most of the outbreaks. Contamination of the parsley likely occurred on the farm when unchlorinated water was recirculated and used for cooling many boxes of parsley. At the restaurants, parsley was chopped and left at room temperature, allowing rapid growth of the bacteria. |
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Impact of Multiple Births on Low Birth Weight -- Massachusetts, 1989-1996 The increase in low birth weight babies in Massachusetts is due, in part, to the dramatic increase in multiple births. |
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| PRESS CONTACT: Bruce Cohen, Ph.D. Massachusetts, Department of Public Health (617) 624-5635 |
A sharp increase in multiple births, especially to women over 35 years of age , is largely responsible for the rising number of low birth weight babies born in Massachusetts. This trend has important implications not only for the well-being of infants and their mothers, but for public health policy. Infants born in multiple births are smaller than infants born as singletons. In Massachusetts in 1996, the low birth weight (less than 5.5 pounds) for singleton deliveries was 4.8 percent; 48.2 percent for twins; and 86.1 percent for triplets and quadruplets. In Massachusetts, more than one in 20 births (5.8 percent) to mothers 35 and older with four or more years of college were multiple births; more than twice the rate of multiple births to women under 35 years of age with a high school education or less (2.5 percent). |
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