Salmonella outbreak

Posted at 12:08 PM on January 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Health

There's a salmonella outbreak in Minnesota.

The factoid was contained in a nationwide Associated Press article, quoting the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

The Minnesota Department of Public Health has made no announcement of the outbreak. The University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research, however, quotes the DPH spokesman:

Doug Schultz, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), told CIDRAP News that Minnesota has confirmed 30 cases that are linked to the national outbreak and that the department expects to detect additional cases. Experts from the MDH, including Team Diarrhea, a group that conducts case-control studies in foodborne disease outbreaks, are continuing their investigation into the source of the Salmonella, he said.

With no leads, it's difficult to say what to avoid, so health officials advise only to cook meat thoroughly and wash your hands often.

However, the CDC is theorizing that it may have something to do with chicken. If that's true, and if 34 states are involved, doesn't that suggest one of the big chicken processing companies as a source?

Stay tuned for more today.

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Comments (8)

Forget the CDC, keep your eye on MDH.

Posted by Paul | January 8, 2009 12:52 PM

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Team Diarrhea? I guess I can't complain about my job.

Posted by Bruce | January 8, 2009 12:56 PM

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Where can I get a jersey?

Posted by bsimon | January 8, 2009 2:19 PM

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//Forget the CDC, keep your eye on MDH.

If we forgot the CDC, we wouldn't know there was an outbreak.

Posted by Bob Collins | January 8, 2009 3:54 PM

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We are just too clean today. No germs around to build up resistance in our bodies so we get sick from the littlest thing.

Posted by bigalmn | January 8, 2009 5:24 PM

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If it were up the CDC, you wouldn't now there is an outbreak. This thing has been going on for weeks. Like I said, keep your eye on MDH.

Posted by Paul | January 8, 2009 10:44 PM

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By the way, obviously it doesn't do any good to simply announce that there's an outbreak underway. At almost any given time multiple outbreaks are being investigated. Sometimes no public announcement is required because it's been resolved or contained. At any rate, you don't go to the public until you actually have something useful to say. Once the source has been identified then you can actually tell people what to do. This is probably why MDH hasn't issued any pubic announcements yet.

Posted by Paul | January 9, 2009 8:17 AM

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So you don't think it's a good time to remind people to make sure their food is thoroughly cooked? (Even though they should always, of course)

What's interesting to me is the original announcement sounds like this is something that just cropped up in the last few days. But it actually started in October with ost people getting sick after December 1.

It's tough work for health investigators. They have to interview people. But if people have the symptoms but aren't aware there's a salmonella outbreak, would they make the connection?

If someone got sick, would they just assume it's the flu and not seek treatment until it was too late?

I imagine there's always quite a bit of discussion before deciding not to publicize a public health threat.

Posted by Bob Collins | January 9, 2009 8:35 AM

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