More than 40 people are ill and almost one-third have needed hospitalization due to a foodborne Shigella outbreak in Denmark.
42 people have been reported with shigellosis in the country since the end of August.
The outbreak is being inspected to try to find out the source of contamination and thus stop it with experts running final traceback audits ahead of plans to disclose results next week.
Between 25th Aug. to 10th Sept., 42 cases of shigellosis were registered to the Statens Serum Institut (SSI).
Patients include 26 women and 15 men aged between 0 to 75 years old. The average age is 29 years. 13 severely-affected people have been hospitalized. Majority of the patients reside in Hovestaden, while 4 cases have been reported in Sjælland and 2 in Midtjylland.
Inquiries with affected individuals revealed they had no travel history in the time-period before they became sick. Shigella is however, not widespread in Denmark and is most often comes because of abroad travelling.
From 10 of the affected patients, Shigella sonnei has been isolated and whole genome sequencing depicts closely related isolates. The other 31 patients tested PCR-positive for the ipaH gene, which acts as a marker for all Shigella species and enteroinvasive E. coli.
Previously, Denmark witnessed one such outbreak in 2007 in which more than 210 people became sick from consuming infected imported baby corn.
There were 12 cases in Queensland, Australia too. Infections were associated with a common baby corn packaging house in Thailand.
2009 came with another outbreak involving 10 people and was traced back to fresh, raw sugar peas (sugar snaps) imported from Kenya. By the end of 2009, Norwegian officials recognized four sickness and five suspicious cases that were associated.
Majority of people infected with Shigella have symptoms such as- fever, diarrhea, and stomach cramps starting 24-48 hours after they get exposure to the bacteria. Shigellosis usually lasts for five days to a week but some individuals may remain getting the symptoms from a few days to a month or more. People who don’t have much better health or are immuno-compromised, are more prone the infection lasting for a longer period of time if they acquire shigellosis.
On the other hand, a Hepatitis A outbreak investigation is still going on which by now includes 16 patients aged between 17 to 63 years. Eleven people have required hospital treatment. Inquiries have revealed that patients have no travel history, don’t have any mutual connection and they had not been the part of any joint events.
A S. Strathcona outbreak that infected 25 people seems to be ended but the source hasn’t been identified. The outbreak of S. Kasenyi is also over with 11 cases but no source has been known yet.