According to News9.com, 17 cases of salmonellosis have now been linked together as a cluster of illnesses in Oklahoma grows. Most of the illnesses occured between September 2 and 13 with students in the Mustang School District but school and health officials did not contact parents until last week as the investigation unfolded. An additional three cases, matched genetically, have now been added to the cluster.
Two adult cases have been identified in Oklahoma County as well as another case in Carter County. Investigators are trying to figure out if those cases are connected to the Mustang outbreak.Only one person, an adult, has been hospitalized.
As Doug wrote last week, this sure looks like a common supplier issue with a ready-to-eat product like fresh produce, especially now since the outbreak includes illnesses outside of the school system. Although procuring safe food is about trust, knowing about the risks associated with ingredients/inputs and asking tough questions about how a supplier handles microbial food safety in production, preparation and handling is a responsible thing to do. And it’s more than just relying on audits; they are just one part of good procurement practices. Dave Theno, formerly of Jack-in-the-Box summed up the limitation of third-party audits in an interview with USA Today last week saying that, "especially with critical suppliers, you’re really betting your business on these guys [auditors]."
In a Bobby McFerrin-esque manner, state health officials in Iowa say not to worry, two Salmonella-positive cases in the state, which are reportedly a genetic match to the Oklahoma cases, are not likely linked.
Patty Quinlisk, Iowa’s chief epidemiologist, says there’s no cause for concern. “We’ve had two cases,” Dr. Quinlisk says. “We investigated both already. There’s no link for the two of them to each other. There’s no obvious exposure to any particular food products nor does there appear to be any link to people who are getting sick in other parts of the country, including Oklahoma.”
Based on their testing and follow-ups, Quinlisk says she’s convinced the Iowa cases are not related to the others. Quinlisk says, “We’re not asking anyone to do anything nor do we see any potential risk to Iowans, though we will continue to watch this and other strains of diseases like salmonella.
” While there may be a DNA “fingerprint” match between the Iowa and Oklahoma strains of salmonella, Quinlisk says that doesn’t mean these people all ate the same type of food or ate in the same restaurant.
“We do a follow-up,” Quinlisk says. “We go in and we interview the people and say, what have you been doing? What have you been eating? Have you been traveling? There’s no exposure link. There’s nothing that our people have been doing that’s anything similar to the cases in Oklahoma, in fact they’re not even in the same age groups, same kind of living situations or anything like that. They’re very different.”
