New Jersey Campylobacter jejuni contaminated raw milk outbreak

Ingestion of unpasteurized milk is the cause
Two New Jerseyans, including a toddler, were among the six dozen people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania to report illnesses this week after drinking raw milk from a dairy farm. The Family Cow voluntarily stopped selling raw milk for 11 days, and resumed sales on Feb. 7 after a Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture inspection re-approved the dairy's operations.

The 78 cases reported by the state department of Health and Senior Services standards — could be a fraction of the number of recent instances of raw-milk related illnesses. Authorities recognize foodborne illnesses tend to be very under-reported, because people will go out to a restaurant, get sick afterwards, and they usually blame it on themselves.

The dozens of cases recently reported to the Pennsylvania and New Jersey departments of health were most likely revealed by health professionals who made the association to the raw milk. Doctors are obligated by law to report such illnesses to the state.

People become sick after consuming raw, or unpasteurized, milk that contains the Campylobacter, an enteric pathogen that causes gastrointestinal illness. The disease called campylobacteriosis usually develops within two to five days after ingesting the bacteria. Symptoms — often bloody diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and cramping — can last for about a week.

The sale of milk that unpasteurized is not permitted in many places; New Jersey is one of them to keep people from getting sick. Unfortunately some people believe the raw version of milk — which has not had the bacteria removed — are healthier, and prevent autism. “There are millions of people in the country, and there is going to be a fringe of people who wrongly believe that pasteurization is a plot that affects the quality of milk.

The reason pasteurization was invented was to stop people from getting sick who drank raw milk. There is one hundred years of evidence to suggest that it works finely. Reversing it at this point doesn’t make any sense.

Milk is not the only food in which Campylobacter can be found, contaminated poultry and non potable water are also frequent sources of campylobacteriosis.