Campy cluster linked to Alejandro’s Taqueria

I haven’t had much notable foodborne illness in my life. I’m good for some noro every couple of years and am usually on the mend within a day or so of explosive vomiting. In 2009 I got campy and the symptoms were bad. Every poop I had was like blowing water out of my colon. And I was doing that 8-10 times a day.

Campy is nasty.alejandrosLG

According to KCRA at least 30 patrons of Alejandro’s Taqueria in Fairfield, CA are experiencing what I did.

“We got an increased number of reports of campylobacter,” Solano County Deputy Health Officer Dr. Michael Stacey said.

It’s a complex word for a very serious bacteria that causes gastrointestinal infections. It can be found on food that hasn’t been properly cooked.

In Fairfield, 32 people have come down with campylobacteriosis.

“It appears, it was linked to eating at Alejandro’s,” Stacey said. “We’re not sure what food item could have been contaminated.”

Most of the people infected ate there between May 26 and 28, but the restaurant wasn’t shut down until June 8. The county said there may be more cases.

The county is investigating samples of cooked food it collected from Alejandro’s Taqueria on June 8.

When KCRA stopped by, employees were inside working but refused to come to the door.

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.