With the patient count having grown to five times the initial number reported, the CDC has declared an end to a Salmonella outbreak traced to Hy-Vee pasta salad.

The most recent person to be infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella became ill on Aug. 7, according to the final outbreak report posted Wednesday afternoon by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That person brought the number of confirmed infections to 101. Sick people are spread across 10 states.

“Of 95 people with information available, 25 (26 percent) were hospitalized,” the CDC reported. 

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Public health officials interviewed many of the patients, but complete information is rarely available from all people sickened in a foodborne illness outbreak. Of the 79 patients for whom the information was available, 60 of them reported eating “Spring Pasta Salad” from Hy-Vee grocery stores in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota. 

Two kinds of Salmonella were involved in the outbreak. Of the 101 confirmed patients, 92 were infected with Salmonella Sandiego. Seven people were infected with Salmonella enterica subspecies IIIb and two people were infected with both strains. 

The Food and Drug Administration also posted a final notice Wednesday on the outbreak. It did not include any new information except to say: “On Sept. 5, 2018, the investigational activities related to this outbreak concluded.” 

Investigators from FDA began looking into a cluster of Salmonella illnesses after receiving notification from public health officials on July 16. The CDC did not report the specific date it began working with state and local officials on the outbreak investigation.

Hy-Vee Inc. of West Des Moines, IA, pulled the implicated pasta salad from all of its stores on July 16. The reginal grocery chain initiated an actual recall the following day. On July 18 CDC posted its initial outbreak alert, reporting 21 confirmed Salmonella cases in five states. By Aug. 1 there were 79 people with confirmed infections.

Public health officials from state and local agencies reported to the CDC that illness onset dates for the outbreak patients ranged from June 21 through Aug. 7. Ill people ranged in age from 1 to 89 years old, with a median age of 50.

Hy-Vee has stores in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Some of the outbreak victims were from other states, but they reported eating pasta salad from Hy-Vee stores while they were traveling.

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