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2/21/2012 Karen S. Amaya Avi Stein, Instructor

Salmonellosis has been around for approximately one hundred years and throughout those years has brought with it a whole lot of health issues. Its pathogen is Salmonella germs which were discovered by an American scientist named Salmon, for whom they are named. Salmonella live in the intestines of animal such as birds and reptiles; however the most common way for a person to become contaminated or ill by this germ is by the consumption of eggs, pork, beef, sprouts, raw milk and almonds and at times even due to international travel and direct contact with reptiles. The symptoms involved in detecting Salmonella in a person are fever, abdominal cramps and diarrhea beginning 12 to 72 hours after consuming a contaminated food or beverage. Its duration is usually 4 to 7 days and most persons recover from it without any antibiotic treatment, however the diarrhea can be severe and the person may require hospitalization. Everyone is at risk of becoming ill if individual precautions are not taken, nonetheless there are those who run a bigger risk when becoming contaminated to be severely ill and even death can take place, that percentage who run this risk are the elderly, infants and those with impaired immune systems, in this patients the infection may spread from the intestines to the blood stream and to other body sites causing death if not treated promptly with antibiotics. The most recent outbreak in the United States was in July 5th, 2011 in which a total of 25 persons were reported with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Enteritidis in 5 states: Idaho (3), Washington (10), Montana (10), North Dakota (1) and New Jersey (1). In this outbreak the ages reported were from 12 years old to 77 years old with a median age of 35 years old, 30% (3) were hospitalized and no death were reported. According to investigations the source of this outbreak was from the consumption of Alfalfa sprouts and Spicy sprouts, products of Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, LLC. In order to prevent Salmonella the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitor salmonella infections in the country and assists the local and state investigating outbreaks and devising control measures. As for the community we can also help ourselves from becoming contaminated by washing our hands, kitchen work surfaces, and utensils with soap and water immediately after they have been in contact with raw meat or poultry, we can also prevent

it by thoroughly cooking poultry, ground beef and eggs and avoiding contaminated foods and drinks like for example raw eggs and raw (unpasteurized) milk.

References:
Morris JG Jr. How safe is our food? Emerg Infect Dis. 2011 Jan; [Epub ahead of print] Scallan E, Hoekstra RM, Angulo FJ, Tauxe RV, Widdowson MA, Roy SL, et al. Foodborne illness acquired in the United States major pathogens. Emerg Infect Dis. 2011 Jan; [Epub ahead of print] Scallan E, Griffin PM, Angulo FJ, Tauxe RV, Hoekstra RM. Foodborne illness acquired in the United Statesunspecified agents. Emerg Infect Dis. 2011 Jan; [Epub ahead of print]