Salmonellosis outbreak at a Vermont hospital

An outbreak of gastrointestinal illness occurred at a hospital in northern Vermont during September 1981. Of the 292 hospital employees surveyed, 43 had diarrheal illness; 12 of them had positive cultures for Salmonella, serotypes chester, tennessee, or habana. In addition, three individuals who were culture-positive but did not have diarrhea were counted among the cases. Illness was related to eating roast beef or cold cuts (P less than .01) in the month of September. One food specimen, an unopened package of precooked roast beef supplied by a New York processor, was found to be contaminated by Salmonella, serotypes chester, tennessee, and livingston. Cold cuts were believed to be secondarily contaminated by a meat slicer. Three of 80 patients whose charts were reviewed had nosocomial diarrhea; two of them had positive cultures for Salmonella, serotype chester. Secondary transmission of Salmonella from hospital staff was the likely source for at least two of the patients.