Nearly 80 reported cases of Salmonella in Durham, North Carolina this past April are ultimately related to the nationwide outbreak due to contaminated eggs sold by Wright County Egg, of Iowa. In a report dated July 9, 2010, the state Health Department concluded that the illnesses resulted from a contaminated commercial pasteurized egg white product used in meringue on desserts.
Today, those health officials were quoted confirming the link between that egg product, and the ongoing national outbreak:
"We’re very confident the outbreak at Bullock’s caused by the commercial egg product can be traced back to eggs in this recall," Megan Davies, North Carolina’s state epidemiologist, said Thursday.
Today’s report went on to detail the still increasing nature of this massive recall and outbreak:
Dr. Christopher Braden, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said almost 2,000 illnesses from the strain of salmonella bacterium linked to the eggs were reported nationally between May and July, about 1,300 more than usual, he added. No deaths have been reported.
The recall has now climbed to 380 million eggs and is likely to go up from there. The restaurant in Durham is not alone:
The CDC said investigations by 10 states since April have identified 25 restaurant cases in which more than one person became ill. Preliminary information showed that Wright was the supplier in at least 15 of those.
In the days and weeks to come, we will likely see confirmation that additional clusters of illnesses are ultimately related to the Wright County Egg products.