According to a June 5 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 41 cases of Salmonella Typhimurium since November 2013 have been linked to exposure to various clinical and college and university teaching microbiology laboratories. Of those who became ill, 62 were 21 years old or younger, and 36 percent were hospitalized. No deaths were reported. These same strains of Salmonella Typhimurium have been associated with outbreaks linked to microbiology laboratory exposure in the past, the CDC said. Those exposed to bacteria used in laboratory settings can spread the bacteria to others with whom they come into contact outside the lab, including young children who may be especially vulnerable. CDC has produced an educational flyer entitled, “What You Work With Can Make You Sick,” to remind those who work in laboratory settings of the potential risk of carrying pathogens outside the lab. The agency also recommends that laboratories use non-pathogenic or attenuated bacterial strains when possible. Public health investigators used the CDC’s PulseNet system to recognize the outbreak. PulseNet, the national subtyping network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories, obtains DNA “fingerprints” of Salmonella bacteria through diagnostic testing with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, or PFGE. The strains in this outbreak are the same ones known to be commercially available for teaching laboratories and have been used at the laboratories associated with this outbreak. At least 109 people in 2011 were sickened with one of these same strains of Salmonella Typhimurium via exposure at clinical and teaching microbiology laboratories.
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