The U.S. endured a significant baby formula shortage last year due to supply chain issues and several product recalls.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the temporary shutdown of Abbott Laboratories’ Michigan baby formula factory prompted serious shortages in parts of the country. The company suspended operations at the plant because some of its formula was allegedly contaminated with the bacteria cronobacter.
Health officials are working to hedge against such shortages in the future. To that end, they will vote in June on a proposal to better track bacterial infections in infants.
To get ahead of the issue, infections from cronobacter, the bacteria that caused some of the recalls last summer, would become “nationally notifiable,” meaning that the government would have a way of tracking outbreaks in order to prevent them from getting out of hand.
Cronobacter usually does not affect healthy adults, but it can be fatal to infants younger than two months old or who were born prematurely.
The CDC told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that it only receives two to four reports of infant cronobacter infections each year. Presently, only two states require cronobacter infections to be reported to state health authorities, Minnesota and Michigan.
The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists will vote on the issue in late June. If approved, cronobacter infections will be added to the list of over 120 nationally notifiable diseases.
As an additional precaution, the CDC advises using liquid formula for infants younger than two months old or immunocompromised infants because liquid formula is sterile, and cronobacter can survive in dry foods.
If you do choose to use powdered formula and your child is at higher risk, the CDC recommends cleaning and sanitizing feeding items, keeping surfaces clean and sanitized, putting unused prepared formula in the fridge as soon as possible, using it within 24 hours, and preparing the formula using hot water.
Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, told the WSJ that even if the infections are added to the notifiable list, there will still be the matter of funding the data collection.
“Making something nationally notifiable does not solve all the things that need to be solved around this critical issue,” she said to the WSJ.