New Salmonella Outbreak Sickens 400 So Far

A national salmonella outbreak has sent at least a dozen people to the hospital and sickened nearly 400 people, officials said Thursday. If this outbreak is like any of the other recent salmonella outbreaks, there will be plenty more victims in the near future.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people from forty-two different states have reported illnesses from the same type of salmonella bacteria. A list of states has not been released as of yet.

Most people infected with salmonella develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts four to seven days, and most people recover without treatment. However, in severe cases, salmonella poisening can even cause death.

CDC officials say the cases in the outbreak have all been recognized as Typhimurium type, which is one of the most common forms of salmonella food poisoning.

Every year in the U.S., an estimated 40,000 people are reported ill with salmonella according to the CDC. However, there are many more salmonella cases that go unreported.

There has been a string of foodborne illness in the United States recently, including a strain of Salmonella carried by peppers from Mexico that sickened 1,400 people from April to August of 2007, a peanut butter salmonella outbreak last year and an E. coli epidemic in 2006, traced to California spinach.