[Outbreak of Campylobacter fetus infection after consumption of unpasteurized sheep's milk cheeses: how to trace the source?]

Campylobacter fetus is a species of gram-negative bacteria whose primary reservoir is the gastrointestinal tracts of cattle and sheep. Human infections are rare, though often invasive and sometimes fatal. In this paper, we studied an outbreak of six patients with a C. fetus infection and outlined their disease histories. In each case we were able to identify factors that led to a reduced resistance, including pre-existing illnesses and old age. Because of the unusually high number of patients that presented in a time period of only five months, the Community Health Services were commissioned to identify the source of infection. Using whole genome sequencing, we showed that 5 out of 6 patients belonged to the same cluster. This One Health approach resulted in the conclusion that the infection originated from unpasteurized sheep's milk processed into unripened cheese. Finally, various measures were put into place to prevent any further outbreaks.

On extreme-value theory in the presence of a trend

Extreme-value theory is considered in the context of independent but not identically distributed random variables. The departure from the case of identical distributions comes from a trend added to i.i.d. observations. Unlike previous authors we consider trends that do not completely destroy the asymptotic behaviour from the i.i.d. case.

Performance of Oxoid Brilliance MRSA medium for detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: an in vitro study

Oxoid Brilliance™ MRSA was evaluated for its ability to identify methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. A well-defined collection of staphylococci was used (n = 788). After 20 h incubation, the sensitivity was 99.6% and the specificity was 97.3%. This new medium is a highly sensitive method of screening for MRSA.