Peanut Butter and Salmonella

Yep, we had fun at work this week, though the local paper (mistakenly) stated that there have been no cases of salmonellosis due to peanut butter in the state. In fact, there are quite a few cases of salmonellosis reported by the state health department in association with this outbreak. Apparently the local newspaper folks just read the AP wire and don't do any of their own research when they add additional material to articles. If they had done a bit of research, they would have found quotes from the state epidemiologist, on that very subject. The local county health department's epidemiologist also stated that there aren't any cases in the state. I'll cut her some slack though. The newspaper could have botched that part. Which reminds me, I should probably call or e-mail her next week. A co-worker who has met her indicated that she was seeking a mentor.

I'm just happy that the issue doesn't involve Jif since that's the brand I use and I eat peanut butter almost daily. The peanut butter shelf at the store today was pretty much empty. No Skippy at all and just a few jars of Jif left.

Tuberculosis update
We now have a total of 7 confirmed or suspect cases. There is a decent chance that two of them could well be other diseases (lung cancer or pneumonia), though there's a chance that the lung cancer cases could also have tuberculosis. I brought some data entry stuff home with me this weekend so that I can get ahead of things before the 2nd round of test results come back. It sounds like someone lit a fire under the behinds of the medical staff of several prisons as we got calls last week asking what they were supposed to do with the paperwork they were sent 6 weeks ago and decided to ignore until now.

Chili Season!
It's actually cold today and there have been snow flurries off and on. I have a pot of chili cooking in the crock-pot. There won't be any accumulation of the snow. There isn't enough of it to accumulate.