The Broome County Health Department is currently investigating a foodborne illness that infected over 300 people in the Broome County jail.
On May 29, Broome County Sheriff Akshar described the “unprecedented challenge” of containing an outbreak of salmonella with the help of multiple local and state agencies, who came together to treat those suffering from the gastrointestinal infection.
The stomach bug-like illness, which quickly spread through the jail’s population, was first thought to be norovirus, according to a joint press release from the Broome County Sheriff’s Office and the Broome County Health Department on May 27.
Within 24 hours of the first reported cases, more than 140 people held in multiple housing units were experiencing similar symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. In a second press release later on May 27, the sheriff’s office and health department confirmed that “multiple test results” revealed the infection spreading within the facility was salmonella, a foodborne bacterial infection.
Health department, local healthcare agencies respond
Broome County Health Department Medical Director Lazarus Gehring said that out of the 450 inmates within the jail, 320 have been infected and no one on staff in the jail has shown symptoms. Ten people were sent to the hospital for treatment, and only four were admitted. The four people had “underlying risk factors” and are currently stable as of May 29, according to Akshar.
Gehring said he believes this outbreak is the second largest in New York state history.
The health department was told about the stomach illness spread on the morning of May 26 and immediately began instituting “stringent gastrointestinal illness precautions,” including cleaning, monitoring symptoms and gearing up a medical team, according to Gehring. Akshar said the corrections staff stopped visitation and limited movement within the jail to prevent the spread, so access to the jail’s phones was lessened.
“While movement may have been a little out of the ordinary for a couple of days, it was due to our deepest desire to keep everyone in the facility, staff and incarcerated alike, as healthy as we could,” Akshar said.
Gehring said that within eight hours of the positive test results, multiple days’ worth of food from the prison was sent to Wadsworth Center lab in Albany for testing to find the source of the bacteria.
“We managed to turn the correctional facility into the second largest hospital in Broome County,” Gehring said.
Broome County Health Department Public Health Director Olivia Catalano said the medical team conducted contact-tracing interviews with people suffering from the illness to discern what the source of the illness was. The staff was able to speak to 90% of inmates who were experiencing symptoms. Questions in the interview included when symptoms began, if they had ended and what each person had eaten in the previous few days based upon samples sent to the lab.
Eventually, Wadsworth Center laboratory identified that chicken salad from the jail’s kitchen tested positive for salmonella. It is currently unknown whether this was the source of the illness, as further testing is needed to determine if it matches the non-typhoid salmonella strain that caused the outbreak within the jail.
An investigation into the outbreak is currently being conducted by the health department. The food sample testing being conducted in Albany is ongoing. Catalano said the department will also be working with the jail’s food vendor, Trinity Services Group, and the jail itself to “enhance food handling.”
“In next steps, we’re going to continue to monitor those in the jail for symptoms and continued improvement,” Catalano said. “We’re happy to see the progress that’s been made.”
The sheriff’s office and health department were assisted by dozens of medical and health care workers from the facility’s health care provider PrimeCare Medical, Inc., UHS and the Broome County Office of Emergency Services.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Chicken salad tested in probe of Broome jail illness outbreak
Reporting by Jillian McCarthy, Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin / Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
