4,000 Feared Sickened In Danish Salmonella Outbreak

Copenhagen, Denmark (AHN) - More than 4,000 people in Denmark may be infected with salmonella in what may become the worst outbreak there in 15 years, health officials said Wednesday.

Urgent checks are being conducted to find the source of a salmonella outbreak that officials say may be caused by a food product distributed only in Denmark but no single source has yet been named.

According to the Danish Ministry of Health, 330 cases have been confirmed and about a quarter of those people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. Officials at the government's center for prevention and control of infectious diseases say the real number probably exceeds 4,000 people.

About 30 new cases are reported every day and the number has risen significantly over the past six weeks. Officials suspect the outbreak to be linked to meat products. The strain has been identified as Salmonella typhimurium U292, a fairly rare type of the disease.

Salmonella typhimurium multiplies in the gastrointestinal tract of many animal species where it usually causes no disease, but in humans its growth causes gastroenteritis. Six to 48 hours after ingestion of contaminated water or food (usually poultry or beef), illness may begin with nausea and vomiting, often followed by diarrhea.

In healthy adults the disease is usually self-limiting with good medical care, but it is more serious in the young, the old, and those with underlying medical conditions; the case-fatality ratio can be as high as 5-10 percent in nurseries and nursing homes.

The United States is also facing a serious salmonella outbreak that has affected more than 800 people as of July 1. The FDA continue to search for the source of contamination, thought to be tomatoes.