A severe salmonella food poisoning outbreak across the UK has resulted in one death, with hundreds of others falling ill. The UK Health Security Agency has launched an investigation into the 207 cases it has seen in the past year, six of which have been in Scotland, with the majority recorded in recent weeks.
While salmonella is a serious infection, usually caused by eating raw or undercooked meat, poultry or eggs, it typically tends to clear up with time. However a small fraction of the cases have led to a more severe development of serious blood poisoning.
Over a third of those affected by the salmonella UK cases are babies and others as old as 90-years-old have required hospital care, with two developing blood poisoning.
What Is Salmonella and How Does It Cause Blood Poisoning?
Salmonella bacteria typically triggers strong inflammation in the gut lining, leading to diarrhoea, and stomach cramps which usually clears up on its own within a few days without treatment.
However, blood poisoning can occur when the bacteria leaves the gut and enters the blood stream instead. Also known as sepsis, blood poisoning is a medical emergency that almost always requires immediate treatment in a hospital.
UK experts suspect the outbreak is linked to eating food made with imported eggs. While there are many different types of salmonella, this particular outbreak in Britain over the past year involves a specific, identical strain according to the BBC.
Blood poisoning as a result of salmonella is more likely to happen with types such as Salmonella typhi, also known as typhoid fever. High risk groups have a higher chance of the infection spreading to the blood.
Symptoms of Salmonella and When to Seek Help
According to the NHS food poisoning guidance, salmonella symptoms usually begin 12 to 72 hours after you eat contaminated food.
Common signs include diarrhoea, stomach cramps, feeling or being sick, and a high temperature. However, people should get better within four to seven days without needing medical treatment.
This is not the case for those who develop blood poisoning as a result of the salmonella infection. This happens when the bacteria leaves the gut and enters the blood.
This is likely to occur in less than five per cent of otherwise healthy people but high-risk groups are more at risk. Vulnerable people include very young infants and older adults or anyone with a weak immune system. People take medicines that lower stomach acid are also more susceptible to sepsis.
It's important to remember that blood poisoning is not common with a standard salmonella infection and most cases stay in the gut and improve on their own.
Blood Poisoning Symptoms to Watch For
Warning symptoms of severe infection in children includes: high fever that stays or keeps coming back, fast heart rate or fast breathing/difficulty breathing, feeling very weak, confused, or dizzy, having a fit, a high or low temperature - feeling very hot or cold when touched, and blue, grey, pale or blotchy skin, lips or tongue.
In adults, these symptoms are more common: confusion or slurred speech, muscle pain, difficulty breathing, uncontrollable shivering, urinating very little, and blue, grey, pale or blotchy skin, lips or tongue.
How to Prevent Salmonella Infection
Preparing and cooking food thoroughly can prevent infection as well as improving your general cleanliness.
Washing your hands after using the bathroom and before handling food should also be practiced.
Thousands of cases of food poisoning occur each year in the UK caused by many different strains of salmonella. However, it is rare to see an outbreak like this linked to one specific strain of the bacterium affecting hundreds of people at one time.
Experts predict there could likely be more cases to come and some people may have also been unwell with the infection but not reported it.
The UKHSA has reassured that "extensive" epidemiological and food chain investigations are ongoing to identify the source of the infection but egg consumption remains the strongest link to date.
Those infected appear to have fallen ill after eating out with food businesses, linked to 24 of the cases, known to use imported eggs.
Those who are at higher risk such as young children, pregnant people and older adults have been advised to only consume runny or raw eggs if they have a British lion mark and are produced under the Laid in Britain egg assurance scheme.
Jacquelyn McCormick, Head of Incidents at the Food Standards Agency, added that people handling eggs, eggshells or egg packaging should wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water.
Despite the precautions, the UKHSA assured: "At this time there is no identified link to UK-produced eggs or poultry."
