Officials in the Seattle/King County area of Washington are investigating an outbreak of infections from Salmonella Berta. One third of the patients have required hospitalization.
Public Health Seattle & King County announced the investigation into the outbreak on July 10. All six of the outbreak patients have been tested using whole genome sequencing and have shown infection from a specific type of Salmonella. The testing shows that all of the patients were likely infected from the same source,
Patients’ symptom onset ranges from April 12 through June 5, according to the health department.
“Public Health conducted interviews with the people sick with salmonellosis to identify potential common exposures and identified that some common exposures were pork and seafood. Environmental Health Investigators began traceback of meat products on June 21, 2023. They collected invoices from different places where some people got food and conducted inspections. A common location or source has not been identified,” according to the department’s outbreak notice.
The investigation is ongoing.
The patients live in different households and range in age from 2 to 65 years old. All the people developed one or more symptoms consistent with salmonellosis, including nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, bloody stool, fever, and chills, according to the public health department.
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