By Cat Holmes
University of Georgia
Georgia health officials are searching for the source of an
outbreak of Salmonella traced to a Golden Corral restaurant in
Kennesaw.
Twenty-three cases of Salmonella berta have been confirmed,
said Matthew Daily, a spokesperson for the Cobb County Board of
Public Health. The first cases were detected in early June.
Over the ensuing weeks, new cases were intermittently
confirmed. It wasn’t until early August that health officials
were alerted to the possibility of an outbreak.
DNA fingerprinting of the cases has confirmed a common cause,
Daily said.
Typically, a cluster arises within a short time, said Michael
Doyle, director of the University of Georgia Center for Food
Safety and an international authority on foodborne bacterial
pathogens.
“There is something odd about the fact that this has been going
on for over two months,” Doyle said. “That suggests it may be
an environmental source.”
So far, tests of food, the environment and employees at the
Golden Corral haven’t detected the source of the bacteria.
Investigators spent Wednesday taking food samples and redoing
environmental swabbing tests they previously conducted in late
August.
Thursday was spent “going over everything with a fine-tooth
comb,” Daily said. “They’re dismantling things and examining
gaskets and washers.”
Until the source of the outbreak is determined, Daily said, the
restaurant will remain closed.
The strain of this outbreak is a very unusual group, or
serotype.
More than 2,000 serotypes can cause salmonellosis in humans,
according to the Centers for Disease Control. Close to half of
the annual cases in the United States are caused by two
serotypes: S. enteritidis and S. typhimurium.
Of the 1,400 Salmonellosis cases of reported in Georgia each
year, only five to six are typically caused by Salmonella
berta, Doyle said.
“It just isn’t common,” Doyle said. “It’s not in the top 10 or
even in the top 20.”
Salmonella is the most common bacterial source of foodborne
illness in the United States, Doyle said. The Centers for
Disease Control estimates 1.3 million cases a year, with 500 to
600 of those fatal.
Salmonella is not usually as serious as other foodborne
illnesses, and not typically fatal. The person in this outbreak
who died had another serious health condition.
Young children, the elderly and people with compromised immune
systems are the most likely to have severe infections, Doyle
said.
(Cat Holmes is a news editor with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
