US-International Herald Tribune-U.S. to post food and drug inspectors overseas

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration intends to post inspectors to embassies and consulates throughout the developing world in hopes of improving the quality of the food and medicines increasingly flowing to the United States, a top official said.

The agency’s commissioner, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, said Thursday that he wanted to have “boots on the ground” in nations like India and China and regions like Central and South America and the Middle East.

The agency already sends inspectors to dozens of countries each year to inspect pharmaceutical plants and clinical trial sites. But von Eschenbach said in a briefing with reporters that he wanted the agency’s presence abroad to be on an “ongoing and continuous basis rather than episodic and periodic…more..

US-LA Times-Salmonella carried by pet turtles sickens 100

Most have been children. At least 24 people have been hospitalized. California has 12 reported cases.

A strain of salmonella carried by small pet turtles has sickened more than 100 people and hospitalized at least 24 nationwide in the largest recorded outbreak of its kind, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

Cases have been reported in 33 states, but mostly in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Most of the patients have been children.

No one has died in the latest outbreak, which began in August. But some patients have experienced severe symptoms, including acute kidney failure.

The most common symptoms reported to the CDC included bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping, fever and vomiting. The median age of patients was 7 1/2 .

“With over 100 cases reported, that’s fairly substantial,” said Mark Sotir, a CDC epidemiologist in Atlanta. “For every case that’s reported to the CDC, we estimate 30 or 40 sick people that haven’t been reported.”..more..