Las Vegas Rates Of Salmonella 4X Caseload In Previous Years

[hatrack]

Researchers have found that salmonella bacteria causing food poisoning and gastritis -- salmonella enteritidis -- have infected people in Las Vegas at four times the rate of previous years, the Southern Nevada Health District reported Tuesday.

"We don't know what the source is," said Brian Labus, senior epidemiologist of the health district. "We haven't found a common facility. But it is typically associated with improperly cooked and stored eggs and poultry, though other sources of infection, raw milk and sprouts and meat have been identified with it in the past. But our focus now is eggs."

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, salmonella enteritidis "silently infects the ovaries of healthy appearing hens and contaminates the eggs before the shells are formed."

Though most infected hens have been found in the northeastern United States, the CDC said that infection occurs in hens in other parts of the country. Since January, the Southern Nevada Health District learned that 30 people went to medical practitioners for treatment of symptoms of the disease, which usually are high fever, abdominal cramps and diarrhea starting 12 to 72 hours after consuming a contaminated food or beverage.


EDIT

http://www.lvrj.com/news/health-district--rate-of-salmonella-infection-up-in-southern-nevada-100964174.html