Salmonella enterica serotype enteritidis outbreak at a long-term care facility, Connecticut, 2012

In May of 2012, the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) was notified of three hospitalized residents of a long-term care facility (LTCF) who had gastrointestinal illness, one of whom had a stool culture positive for Salmonella enterica. A multiagency outbreak investigation was initiated and identified a total of 21 possible salmonellosis cases; nine were culture-confirmed Salmonella serotype Enteritidis with an indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pattern (PFGE). This report describes the epidemiologic, environmental, and laboratory investigation conducted as part of DPH's response. Undercooked raw shell eggs were the likely source of infection. This investigation reemphasizes the vulnerabilityof certain populations to severe illness from Salmonella and further stresses previous recommendations in the literature to use only pasteurized egg products in long-term care and other health care facilities.