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There have been a number of laboratory-confirmed cases of salmonella in Durban but there is no "outbreak" of infections in the province, KwaZulu-Natal health authorities said on Monday.
Reports of a salmonella outbreak in the province have been doing the rounds on social media since the beginning of October. These include claims by people who say they were hospitalised after allegedly having breakfast at Old Town Italy, an upmarket restaurant in Umhlanga, north of Durban.
"At least some of the social media platforms seem to be portraying the picture that the province is seething with salmonella, it certainly is not," said Neil Larratt, deputy head of the eThekwini municipality's health unit.
Larratt told journalists at a press conference that there had been allegations of "outbreaks" elsewhere besides Old Town Italy, including a creche at Cowies Hill, west of Durban.
"In the creche, there is one confirmed case. The children who attended the creche did become ill, but in fact very lightly. Most of them simply went home and didn't receive medical attention," said Larratt.
He said there had also been "discussions" on social media around family groups who attended a potjie cook-off where some people had become ill.
Delayed reporting of cases
"We have no knowledge of that but clearly as our efforts going forward we will try and gain that knowledge and interview those people," he said.
Larratt said the health unit had also been told that Old Town Italy's egg distributor had given assurance that his eggs had tested negative for salmonella.
"If you could just look at it logically, we've got a bunch of people from one restaurant that ate one thing. We have people from the same family who had the same thing but excluded a particular sauce and they were fine. So just superficially it would appear that we have identified the cause. Unfortunately, one of the things that happened was that there was delayed reporting to the health unit," he said, adding that the matter was only reported to unit after four days.
"In an ideal world, you'd be able to take samples of the food that was alleged to have caused the harm and split the sample into three, for a test at restaurant owner's facility, our facility and NHLS (National Health Laboratory Services) for comparison purposes. That was an unfortunate glitch," he said.
READ: Salmonella outbreak: At least 20 hospitalised in Durban area
He appealed to private medical practices to report outbreaks timeously so that the health unit can investigate "as quickly as possible".
Provincial health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said based on the information obtained from those who had become ill, and having considered the symptoms, incubation period, and type of meals consumed, it was most likely that their illness was due to salmonella which may have been present in the raw eggs used to make hollandaise sauce.
"We wish to categorically state that there is no outbreak of salmonella in the province. This matter has to do with poorly prepared food," he reiterated.
According to Dhlomo, salmonella infection (salmonellosis) is a common bacterial disease that affects the intestinal tract.
"Salmonella bacteria typically live in animal and human intestines and are shed through faeces. Humans become infected most frequently through contaminated water or food," he said.
Restaurant tests 'negative'
Old Town Italy said on its Facebook page that the reported salmonella incidences at the restaurant have not been going on for months "as claimed on social media and quoted in the press".
The restaurant said it had two reported incidents on October 6 that were investigated and independent tests were conducted.
"On 20 October the test results came back and showed that there was no presence of salmonella in our kitchen/personnel tested or on the ingredients tested including the eggs and hollandaise sauce," the restaurant said.
No further incidents were reported until November 5, according to Old Town Italy.
"We therefore viewed the two cases as isolated. Despite this we took additional precautionary measures, in addition to our normal health and safety procedures."
Since November 5, the restaurant has received 11 reports, according to the Facebook post.
The restaurant said it had decided not to serve eggs on its breakfast menu "until the investigations into all cases with Old Town Italy have come to a defined result".
