Health Law

Skokie Update: More ill with Salmonella in Skokie Country Club outbreak

By Drew Falkenstein

The most recent report is that 37 people have suffered confirmed Salmonella infections in the Salmonella outbreak at Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, Illinois.  Eight victims have required hospitalization, and two of those victims remain hospitalized. 

The strain of Salmonella in the Skokie Country Club outbreak is Salmonella enteritidis, which is one of the most common of the 2,000+ different strains of Salmonella.  Serotype enteritidis is frequently, though not always, associated with the consumption of undercooked eggs.  We have represented many people in Salmonella enteritidis outbreaks associated with undercooked eggs, and have discovered that, in egg outbreaks, frequently the restaurant involved has engaged in the practice of "pooling" eggs--i.e. cracking a bunch of eggs and holding a dozen or more of the cracked eggs in a large bowl or bucket.  This practice has the potential to cause bacterial proliferation, thus creating quite a dangerous bowl of eggs. 

There has been no official word of what happened at the Skokie Country Club, but the outbreak, which appears to be quite large (80+ suspected illnesses), has many features that suggest breakdowns in proper foodhandling procedures.  Whether the outbreak was in fact linked to eggs, much less pooled eggs, remains to be seen, but certainly there were failures amongst the kitchen and service staff at Skokie. 

Full post as published by Food Poison Blog on July 01, 2010 (boomark / email).