Question

An outbreak of salmonellosis occurred after a faculty luncheon at Jefferson University Hospital, which was attended by 485 faculty and staff. Assume everyone ate the same food items. Sixty-five people had fever and diarrhea; five of these people were severely affected. Later on, laboratory tests on everyone who attended the luncheon revealed an additional 72 cases.

Calculate and explain the attack rate of salmonellosis in this scenario.

Foods served at the luncheon included home-canned olives, chicken salad, homemade flavored drink mix, freshly baked rolls, and raw vegetables. Based on your understanding of foods that potentially are capable of transmitting salmonella, what is the most likely source of the salmonellosis outbreak?

How do the properties or characteristics of an agent affect the attack rate? Please limit your answer to 4 sentences

Answer 1

Attack rate provides the idea about the frequency or speed of spread of an infection in a population It can be calculated simply by dividing the number of cases occurred during a particular time period by a total number of people present at the start of the time interval number of cases occurred during a particular time period 100 Attack rate total number of people present at start of the time interval Given information Total number of people who attended the luncheon= 485 Number of cases= 65 Number of cases revealed after laboratory test- 72 Total number of cases= 65 + 72 = 137 137 x100 = 28.24% 485 Attack rate Salmonellosis is caused by bacteria belonging to the genus Salmonella. This infection is mainly caused by eating or drinking food or water contaminated with this bacterium especially raw or uncooked vegetable, meat, and poultry. Thus, chicken salad and raw vegetables have the maximum potential of transmitting the bacteria Salmonella is a gram-negative bacterium which usually resides the gut of the infected individual. It is a facultative intracellular pathogen, that is, it resides inside the cell. It is usually grew on uncooked food especially raw fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, and fish It is usually transmitted by person-person, animal-person, or by contaminated food or water. So, its attack rate is typically high where proper hygiene is not maintained, people who consume raw food, and in people who are immunized or have low immunity such as AIDS or cancer patients