1 in county, 9 in state sickened by salmonella

A person in El Paso County was one of 388 sickened in a national salmonella outbreak affecting 42 states, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported Thursday.

Nine people in Colorado have come down with the bacterial food-borne illness in the outbreak involving the Salmonella typhimurium strain, said epidemiologist Alicia Cronquist.One person was hospitalized, but was not from El Paso County.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working with state public health officials to investigate the outbreak. No source for the outbreak has been identified, but the typhimurium strain is usually spread by contaminated food.

The outbreak dates back to September, according to the CDC, but new cases continue to be identified.

Typhimurium is a common strain of salmonella, Cronquist said, but the cases in the outbreak have the same DNA fingerprint, suggesting a shared source for its spread.

People are usually infected with the bacteria from animal-related food products such as meat, eggs and unpasteurized milk, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Information Office.

Salmonella causes diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever and can last from four to seven days. Most people don't need treatment, but some are hospitalized. The hospitalization rate for the outbreak is about 18 percent, the CDC said.

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