Research and analysis

HPR volume 8 issue 33: news

Updated 23 December 2014

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1. Salmonella Enteritidis PT14B outbreak: an update

PHE is continuing to investigate a national outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis PT14B, associated with a European outbreak [1], in respect of which overall case reporting in England slowed over the past week. Total reported numbers in England reached 247 cases, as at 22 August 2014 [2].

The additional cases are not new infections from the last 7 days, but historical cases reported to PHE during the past week.

There is now evidence to indicate that cases in Europe with the same strains of salmonella infection were associated with consumption of eggs from a single source. This egg supply also reached distributors and food outlets in England, but at this stage it cannot conclusively be demonstrated that this is the infection source in this country.

1.1 References

  1. “International outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis affecting England, France and Austria”, HPR 8(32).

  2. “Salmonella outbreak investigation: update”, PHE press release, 22 August.

2. Radon detector performance annual report

The results of the latest annual inter-laboratory comparison of radon detector performance have been published by PHE, covering data gathered from 25 participating laboratories in 12 countries [1].

Stringent quality assurance is vital in the measurement of environmental radon levels, particularly when passive radon detector technology is used, and the scheme operated by PHE’s CRCE (previously NRPB) since 1982 provides participants with a routine benchmark performance standard, with agreed test and interpretation protocols.

Participating laboratories are invited to submit sets of detectors to CRCE that are then exposed to a range of radon concentrations before being returned for processing. Laboratories, who are not informed of the details of the exposures until results have been submitted to CRCE, are ranked according to the degree of measurement error recorded.

The latest report covers the results of intercomparisons carried out in 2013, covering all types of passive detector.

2.1 Reference

  1. Results of the 2013 PHE intercomparison of passive radon detectors (PHE-CRCE-011), 22 August 2014, ISBN 978-0-85951-7577.
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