Personal Injury Law

If You Get "Poona," The Good News Is You Will Probably Get Over It

By Marler Clark LLP

If you come down with something with the word "Poona" in it, somehow it seems a whole lot more serious.  However, at least one Canadian health expert is saying you get Salmonella Poona and you get over it.   However serious it gets, health experts in Canada are saying North America is experiencing an outbreak of another rare strain of Salmonella, this one known as "Poona."

And Canada says there are 48 confirmed cases in the United States.

The Canwest News Service reports:

Canadian health officials are investigating a potential North American outbreak of a rare strain of salmonella called Salmonella Poona.

The Public Health Agency says it is working closely with local and U.S. health authorities to determine the origin of the food-borne illness that has sickened 48 people in the United States.

In Canada there have been six cases in Manitoba, Quebec and Nova Scotia with the same "genetic fingerprint" as the strain in the U.S. and 14 other suspected cases in Ontario. 

No one has been hospitalized so far, the agency said in a news release.

"We don't yet know the source of the outbreak. (The investigation) is very preliminary right now," said Philippe Brideau, with the Public Health Agency.

Brideau said for most people the risk from Salmonella Poona is very low.

"It's a relatively rare strain around the world but it seems that people just get sick and move on," he said, adding that there is an average of 20 cases a year in Canada of the particular strain.

Saintpaul was the last rare strain of Salmonella to be responsible for a North American-wide outbreak.  Tomatoes and peppers grown in Mexican were implicated in that Salmonella outbreak.

For more from Canwest, go here.

Full post as published by Salmonella Blog on September 30, 2008 (boomark / email).