[Salmonella non-typhoid infection: new epidemiological findings]

Food-borne infections are the most serious food safety problem in the world. In fact, they are responsible of millions of illnesses and thousand of deaths. Non-typhoid Salmonella infection is frequent world-wide and, although mild and self-limiting illness in normal subjects, it may cause a severe disease in patients with an immune-deficiency. Changes in the agents and in the vehicles of transmission and a higher number of patients with immune-depression have determined a world-spread of non-typhoid Salmonella infection in the last decades. The increased frequency of international travels and food commerce have been associated with outbreaks of unusual serotype of Salmonella. Moreover, drug-resistant Salmonella are emerged recently, as Ampicillin and Doxiciclin-resistant S. enteritidis or DT-104 multidrug-resistant S. typhimurium. The outbreak of Salmonella disease is also linked to diffusion of HIV infection and of other immunodeficiencies. The lack of controls in food industry, the frequent contamination of mass-distributed food products and the decreased opportunities to transmit for instruction on food safety, both in school and inside the family, are the causes of large-scale outbreaks