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Salmonellacontamination.
As of Aug. 3, CDC, had received reports that 78 cases from 26 states including one death associated with this outbreak ofSalmonellaHeidelberg have occurred since March 1, according to Chris Braden, M.D., Director, Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, CDC. “The reported dates of illness onsets are March 9 through July 2. It’s possible there are other cases that have not yet been reported,” Braden said at that time.
CDC reports that 23 of these sick people have been identified withSalmonellaHeidelberg with a closely related PFGE pattern to that of the other 84 ill persons. The 23 ill persons with this closely related PFGE pattern ofSalmonellaHeidelberg have been included in the total count of outbreak cases.
These two closely related PFGE patterns ofSalmonella Heidelberg were isolated from a ground turkey sample taken from an Ohio patient’s home and retail samples of ground turkey collected as part of routine surveillance through the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS). Collaborative investigative efforts of state, local, and federal public health and regulatory agencies indicate that eating ground turkey is the likely source of this outbreak.
The outbreak strain ofSalmonellaHeidelberg is resistant to several commonly prescribed antibiotics; this antibiotic resistance may be associated with an increased risk of hospitalization or possible treatment failure in infected individuals.
