Wang Ruiping, Teng Chen-gang, Zhang Ning, Zhang Jun, Conway George
China Field Epidemiology Training Program, Beijing, China . ; Songjiang Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai, China .
Western Pac Surveill Response J. 2013 Jul 30;4(3):33-6. doi: 10.5365/WPSAR.2013.4.2.012. eCollection 2013 Jul-Sep.
In April 2013, a hospital in Suzhou City notified authorities of a patient with nitrite poisoning with two other family members who had similar toxic symptoms five days prior. We investigated the event to identify the cause, source and possible route of contamination.
A case was defined as any person living in the Yang Shan Hua Yuan community who had been diagnosed with cyanoderma and food poisoning symptoms from 15 to 25 April 2013. Active case finding was conducted by interviewing community residents and reviewing medical records from local clinics; information was then retrospectively collected on the patient's food history, cooking procedures and food sources.
We identified three nitrite poisoning cases, one male and two females, from the same family. The time between dinner and onset of illness was less than an a hour. A retrospective survey showed that a substance presumed to be sugar mixed with asparagus on 17 April and with stir-fried asparagus on 21 April was the suspected contaminant. The presumed sugar came from a clean-up of a neighbouring rental house. Nitrite was detected in a vomitus sample, the sugar substance and two leftover food samples.
This family cluster of nitrite poisoning resulted from the mistaken use of nitrite as sugar to cook dishes. We recommend that sodium nitrite be dyed a bright colour to prevent such a mistake and that health departments strengthen food hygiene education to alert people about the danger of eating unidentified food from an unknown source.
2013年4月，苏州市一家医院向有关部门报告了一名亚硝酸盐中毒患者，其另外两名家庭成员在五天前也出现了类似中毒症状。我们对该事件展开调查，以确定中毒原因、源头及可能的污染途径。
病例定义为2013年4月15日至25日居住在阳山花园社区且被诊断患有紫绀和食物中毒症状的任何人。通过走访社区居民和查阅当地诊所的病历进行主动病例搜索；然后回顾性收集患者的饮食史、烹饪程序和食物来源信息。
我们从同一家庭中确定了3例亚硝酸盐中毒病例，1名男性和2名女性。晚餐至发病时间间隔不到1小时。回顾性调查显示，4月17日与芦笋混合、4月21日与炒芦笋混合的一种疑似为糖的物质是可疑污染物。该疑似糖来自对隔壁出租屋的清理。在一份呕吐物样本、该糖物质和两份剩余食物样本中检测到亚硝酸盐。
这起家庭聚集性亚硝酸盐中毒事件是由于误将亚硝酸盐当作糖烹饪菜肴所致。我们建议将亚硝酸钠染成鲜艳颜色以防止此类错误发生，并建议卫生部门加强食品卫生教育，提醒人们警惕食用来源不明的未知食物的危险。
