Salmonella: a villain in 'food poisoning'

The majority of these reports occurred during and shortly after the hottest summer recorded in Melbourne. It has been suggested that meat coming from the abattoirs may have carried a higher than usual load of organisms. Variability of the severity of the symptoms is related to host factors and food handling as well as to the virulence of the particular serovar. Investigations by the staff of the Department of Human Services revealed some major errors in food handling in some situations and minor breaches in others. Mishandling by consumers is also likely (Lester et al 1997). Such outbreaks serve to remind us not only of the importance, particularly in hot weather, of careful handling of meat, especially smallgoods, but also of the need for rapid notification to the appropriate authority of diarrhoeal illness where food is suspected to be the cause.