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The Pennsylvania Department of Health is collaborating with public health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety Inspection Service, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and many other state health departments to investigate an ongoing multi-state outbreak of human infections due to Salmonella serotype Typhimurium. CDC is leading the multi-state epidemiologic investigation which has identified peanut butter from a specific manufacturing plant in Georgia as the source of the outbreak.
An extensive list of recalled peanut butter and peanut paste containing products can be found on the FDA website ( www.fda.gov). This list is updated frequently. Many companies have already announced whether their products include ingredients being recalled by Peanut Corporation of America, Blakely, Georgia.
According to CDC, health departments in 44 states and Canada have identified more than 630 persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Typhimurium.
Nineteen Pennsylvania residents are known to have been ill with Salmonella matching the outbreak "fingerprint" pattern. Most linked Pennsylvania cases occurred in October, November and December 2008, but the most recent confirmed illness onset in PA was January 13, 2009. The ill PA residents were located across the state in: Allegheny, Bedford, Bucks (2), Butler, Chester (2), Clinton, Delaware (2), Philadelphia (2), Lancaster (3), Lehigh, Luzerne, Montgomery, and York counties. Patient ages in Pennsylvania ranged from 2 to 73 years, and none of the infections were fatal.
Salmonella Typhimurium is the most commonly identified type of Salmonella in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation. Cases of Salmonella Typhimurium are routinely reported to the Department of Health and most of them are not connected to this outbreak. Therefore, special fingerprinting procedures are required at the Department of Health's laboratory in Lionville to determine if any individual case is part of this or any other outbreak.
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