Connecticut Public Health Agencies Won’t Name Restaurant in Salmonella Outbreak

Multiple cases of Salmonella poisoning were confirmed but not reported to the community.

When John Snow traced the London Vibrio cholerae epidemic of 1854 to a local well, he removed the pump handle so all would know the source of the fatal disease when it ceased to plague the city. Removing that pump handle is still remembered today because it represented public health’s first major victory.

But it seems this act would be illegal today in Connecticut. Here’s the story:

Both the Orange, CT Health Department and the Connecticut Department of Public Health have declined to tell  if a closed restaurant was responsible for sickening a local resident with Salmonella enterica serovar Schwarzengrund. This serovar is the predominant cause of salmonellosis in Southeast Asia, a major source of imported food products to the United States.

 Affected consumer’s eat slices of chicken pizza at Oregano Joe’s on Boston Post Road in Orange for his illness, symptoms included a 104-degree fever, extreme diarrhea and vomiting. Some patients spent almost a week in the Intensive Care Unit at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and were told by one of his doctors they were suffering from a severe case caused by Salmonella intoxication.  Another patient at the hospital with the same Salmonella symptoms reportedly also ate at Oregano Joe’s restaurant.

Available reports showed that the restaurant was closed twice by the Orange Health Department, once on May 30 for one day and then again on June 20 for five weeks. However, the local health department won’t say why it closed the establishment and won’t say if there is a link between the illnesses and the restaurant closures.

Both the local and state health departments say state law prevents them from sharing the information they have with the public. On the contrary the local police report quoted the owner as saying his eatery was shut down ‘due to multiple confirmed cases of S Salmonella enterica serovar Schwarzengrund  poisoning.This serovar is remarkably disposed to nosocomial spread, and presents a unique opportunity to identify factors that facilitate this important type of transmission. 

This is relevant since spread of multidrug-resistant S. Schwarzengrund from chickens to persons has been reported in Thailand, and from imported Thai food products to persons in Denmark and the United States. 

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5934a1.htm