15 May 2013

Salmonella outbreak advice and update

| Barcham
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Yum

In response to the recent outbreak of salmonella at The Copa Brazilian Churrasco, the ACT Chief Health Officer, Dr Paul Kelly has today activated emergency response protocols at Canberra Hospital and Calvary Hospital in order to help cope with the increased workload.

The ACT Chief Health Officer, Dr Paul Kelly said “Canberra is experiencing an outbreak of
gastroenteritis, in some cases caused by Salmonella bacteria. A public health investigation of this
outbreak is ongoing but, at this stage, it appears than at least 50 cases of gastroenteritis have
occurred in the ACT over the past 48 hours.

If you need medical attention you are warned that you may experience delays at Canberra and Calvary Hospitals Emergency Departements and it may be better to look elsewhere for assistance.

Finally the ACT Health Directorate has put out the following advice on identifying and dealing with the salmonella outbreak.

Symptoms of Salmonella gastroenteritis include diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fever, nausea, vomiting
and headaches. Sometimes diarrhoea can contain blood or mucus.

Symptoms usually start 12-36 hours after a person becomes infected and usually last from 4-7 days.

Many cases do not need medical treatment and resolve themselves. People experiencing symptoms
of gastroenteritis should ensure they remain well hydrated by drinking fluids.

People should seek medical attention if they experience severe abdominal pain, cannot eat or drink,
vomit blood or have blood in their bowel movements, or experience an elevated fever.

I hope you’re all doing fine.

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Ha it just made Today Tonight as breaking news! Nearly a week after it happened….)

Please don’t judge me, I don’t make a regular habit of watching TT…..

FioBla said :

bundah said :

“pretty much everyone eats everything”.

Was that the buffet, or the after party?

In a thread that started off with bloody bowel movements, you still managed to lower the tone. Congratulations!

bundah said :

“pretty much everyone eats everything”.

Was that the buffet, or the after party?

It has also been reported that it has been hard to pin down what caused the outbreak because of the restaurant’s buffet style which implies “pretty much everyone eats everything”.

Restaurants serve a large number of customers in a sitting, particularly one with Copa’s business model. My understanding is they also have a very limited menu from the BBQ, so large numbers, limited menu, means heaps of people subject to a single point of failure. Hearing 8 people from the same table falling ill is the big clue.

I’m curious as to how many of the more than 50 cases are linked to Copa.

(Late) yesterday…..

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