– It’s a pretty big outbreak compared to what we usually have. It’s not very often you get Salmonella outbreaks, FHI specialist director Preben Aavistland tells NRK.
People live in Vestland (11), Viken (8), Telemark and Vestfold (5), Innlandet (2), Trøndelag (2), Troms and Finnmark (1), Møre and Romsdal (1) and Oslo (1).
13 of the infected people were hospitalized with salmonellosis. Typical symptoms are diarrhea, headache, abdominal pain, nausea and possibly fever.
– The fact that they were hospitalized due to such an illness indicates that they had a lot of diarrhea and needed fluid treatment. It’s not that unusual, says Aavitsland.
The youngest infected is 1 year old. The oldest is 84 years old. The average age of those infected is 31 years old.
– The number of people hospitalized is high
The outbreak concerns the bacterium Salmonella agona, which is a rare variant of Salmonella.
The source of the infection is currently unknown. Salmonella bacteria are mainly transmitted through food.
FHI is now trying to find out the origin of the outbreak, together with local municipal chief doctors, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority and the Veterinary Institute.
Because people diagnosed with the bacterium live in eight counties, FHI believes it is a food product distributed throughout the country.
– The epidemic had increased in several cases when it was discovered. It could indicate that this is a fairly common product, says Aavitsland.
– The number of people hospitalized in this outbreak is high, but we have no indication that this Salmonella variant causes more serious illness than other Salmonella variants, says Senior Consultant Heidi Lange at the Institute of Public Health.
He believes in a lot of darkness, but he doesn’t fear a big eruption
All were infected in November.
– There are probably many other people who have contracted this diarrheal disease, who may not have been sick enough to need medical attention, and therefore have not had a stool sample taken, says Aavitsland.
They don’t think the epidemic will grow much more in terms of scope.
– We are not afraid of a very large outbreak. Now many people are working to find out. I don’t think it will be long before we find out what food it is. So we will stop this food product, if it is not already depleted for natural reasons.
Bergen’s chief infectious disease doctor, Marit Voltersvik, tells NRK they have the most cases in Vestland.
– Some of these were even in the hospital, says Voltersvik.
– What are you doing to find out what happened?
– The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has the interview section. It’s a lot of detective work with big forms to map out what people ate and so on, she says.
