Containment of a cheesecake-associated outbreak of salmonellosis in 3 different hospitals, detected by continuous microbiologic surveillance

摘要

Foodborne outbreaks of salmonellosis continue to be a public health challenge.Here, we report how our hospital-wide, continued microbiologic surveillance system helped uncover Salmonella enteritidis contamination of bakery products from a local pastries supplier as the cause of an outbreak in 3 tertiary care hospitals.The City of Cologne Hospitals (Kliniken der Stadt Koln gGmbH) consist of 3 major sites in Cologne, Germany: University Hospital of the private University of Witten/Herdecke (site A), a tertiary care hospital (site B), and a children's hospital (site C).Clinical microbiologic findings of all 3 sites (ie, sites A, B, and C) are transferred automatically from the Microbiology Laboratory to the Institute of Hospital Hygiene. Analysis focuses on the detection of unusual microorganisms, resistance patterns, and clusters in relation to admission dates. If cases match the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definition of health-care associated diarrhea due to S enteritidis,2 epidemiologic investigation is started immediately.