No salmonella cases have been reported in Maryland, though 171 people have caught the food-borne illness from produce in 19 states, including Virginia.
Overall, salmonella is not as serious a risk as the E. coli epidemic tied to bagged fresh spinach in September, said Dr. Paul Eder, an infectious disease specialist with Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore.
“I don?t think that we would have even heard about this if it wasn?t for the E. coli outbreak,” he said.
“Often the people that have problems with it are immune-compromised” from some other serious illness, he said.
The particular strain identified by DNA labs nationwide ? salmonella typhimurium ? typically causes an illness with fever and nonbloody diarrhea, which commonly resolves itself after about one week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On average, these labs reported 86 cases of this strain per year during the past five years, the CDC reports.
But in this outbreak, 171 cases of the same strain have been confirmed since Sept. 1. Of these, 14 people were hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.
Parts of New England, the Midwest and the South reported outbreaks.
Few new cases are being detected, the CDC reported, and there is little evidence of continuing risk to the public.
Salmonella is a bacteria that gets into the food chain from animals and animal waste, Eder said. Most often, reptiles, such as iguanas, are the culprit, but the bacteria also can live on the shells of uncooked eggs.
Symptoms are generally mild, compared to the E. coli outbreak that killed three people and hospitalized more. Anyone with diarrhea lasting more than one or two days should seek medical care, Eder said.
Health officials have not linkedthis outbreak to any specific food source, but Eder said washing vegetables in cold water in the sink should sufficiently protect from salmonella.
“You don?t need special vegetable washes,” he said.
