Drug-Resistant Salmonella Infection Spreads to 29 States

Patients in 29 states have been diagnosed with Salmonella infection attributed to consuming tainted chicken products. Worse, public health officials say testing shows this particular strain to be resistant to multiple antibiotics often used to treat patients with severe Salmonella infections. No deaths have been reported, but scores of patients have been hospitalized. Ask patients who present with diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps what they’ve eaten in the past 12–72 hours, and consider giving a Salmonella test to those who have eaten chicken in that time span. The United States Department of Agriculture is monitoring the outbreak.