As of this week, 938 people have been infected with salmonella in 2020. Cases have almost doubled in the past month: 473 people have been sickened since the last case report in June, the CDC said.
The alleged culprit in this outbreak is poultry. Public health officials interviewed more than 400 people who fell ill with salmonella, and 74% of them said they had had contact with chicks and ducklings.
Since the first disease was reported in January, the CDC said 15 outbreaks have been identified in various states. So far, three of them, found in Kentucky and Oregon, have been linked to poultry and their chicken coops.
The CDC did not speculate why more people were infected in 2020 than in previous years. His schedule of reported cases shows that cases started to increase in late March (cases generally increase in the spring, when poultry is most popular, according to the CDC).
Chicks and ducks can carry salmonella in their digestive tract, which does not harm them but can cause diarrhea, fever and painful cramps in humans who are exposed to the bacteria in the feathers or eggs of birds or in their droppings.
CNN’s Jen Christensen contributed to this report.
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