Probe Over 30 Sick With Salmonella
IRELAND - Public health officers are investigating a severe outbreak of salmonella after 30 people were diagnosed with the bug in a four-week period.The outbreak in the Tralee and north Kerry area means three times as many people have fallen ill in Kerry in just one month than all of last year.
The figures relate to July but it is understood the bulk of the 30 confirmed cases occurred between July 6 and July 9.
By comparison, there had been just eight cases in Kerry in the first six months of the year and 10 in the whole of 2006, the HSE said yesterday.
It is suspected locally the cases may have originated in an ingredient in a product sold in a food retail outlet. However, the HSE would not confirm this.
An HSE outbreak control team is probing "a possible" link to a food premises in Tralee. Management of the premises were co-operating with the investigation.