Health officials in Santa Clara County, California today confirmed that at least 42 people have tested positive for the same strain of Salmonella Enteritidis identified in a salmonella outbreak that has sickened over 1500 people nationwide. That salmonella strain has been linked to contaminated eggs produced at two Iowa egg farms - Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms. Those farms and their distributors have now issued a recall of 550,000,000 eggs – the largest egg recall in history.
Six of the Santa Clara salmonella victims have been hospitalized.
The salmonella illnesses began to show up at the Santa Clara Health Department after a graduation party and prom on May 28 and 29 in Santa Clara County. Several people became sick, with three people ultimately testing positive for Salmonella Enteritidis.
The health officials then began a traceback investigation to determine the source of the illnesses. “At this point, we didn’t know anything other than that we had a few salmonella cases,” said Joy Alexiou, spokeswoman for Santa Clara County Department of Health. “We didn’t know about contaminated eggs.”
The investigation revealed that guests from the prom and graduation party had eaten a custard-filled pastry called profiteroles. The caterer for both of the events had run out of pasteurized filler and made the rest of the fillings with shell eggs, said Michael Sicilia, a spokesman for the California Department of Health. The custard contained salmonella that made the victims sick. The investigation eventually found that the caterer had been using eggs produced from Wright County Egg.
Soon after the investigation began, many more matching Salmonella Enteritidis cases began appearing in numerous counties across the state of California. In all, at least 266 California salmonella illnesses have been confirmed to date.
Simon & Luke Can Help
If you became ill after eating eggs or egg products and were contacted by California health authorities, then you are likely one of the cases tied to this outbreak. If so, you are entitled to significant compensation for your illness – including payment for all of your medical bills, lost wages, and suffering you endured.
The Salmonella lawyers at Simon & Luke are currently investigating this salmonella egg outbreak. Our food poisoning lawyers have represented over 2000 victims of salmonella across the United States, including numerous California and Santa Clara salmonella claimants, filing hundreds of salmonella lawsuits and recovering millions of dollars in salmonella settlements for our clients. We have already been called upon by NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN, along with dozens of print media outlets, to provide commentary and insight into the salmonella egg outbreak, its source, and measures that can be taken to make our egg supply and food system safer for all.
Call us toll free at 1-888-335-4901 or contact us by email at ron@simonluke.com – we are happy to answer your questions free of charge.
