Personal Injury Law

Campylobacter Infection Strikes Consumers of Raw Milk in California

By Bill Marler, Esq.

We have recently learned of individuals in Northern California who have become seriously ill after consuming raw cow’s milk tainted with the bacteria campylobacter.  At least one person remains hospitalized after consuming the milk and developing Guillain-Barré (ghee-yan bah-ray) syndrome (GBS).  GBS is a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system.  The peripheral nervous system includes the cranial nerves (except the optic [eye] nerve), the spinal nerves, and the autonomic nervous system that governs involuntary actions.  This woman remains hospitalized on a ventilator.

Campylobacter jejuni (pronounced “camp-e-low-back-ter j-june-eye") is a bacterium that was first recognized as a cause of human gastrointestinal illness in 1975.  Since that time, the bacterium has been identified as the most common cause of bacterial foodborne illness in the U.S., ahead of Salmonella – the second most common cause.

Got “Raw” Milk?

OK, before the raw milk folks get out their pitchforks - again - I want you to know that I have also been retained by the family of one of the people who died after drinking Listeria-tainted "pasteurized milk" (contaminated post-pasteurization during the bottling) in Massachusetts late last year.  See, it is not that I am against raw milk per se, I am just against poisoning people for money - raw or not so.

Full post as published by Marler Blog on August 08, 2008 (boomark / email).