Salmonellosis

Salmonella food poisoning
A food infection or gastroenteritis that results from eating food contaminated with feces, or drinking water with feces. There are about 2 million reported cases each year worldwide of salmonella, but a lot of people don't go to the doctor for salmonella and many cases go unreported. They grow in the small intestines, and are motile. The epithelial cells phagocytose them and allow the salmonella to travel inside the cells.

Etiology
Salmonella enterica; any species that infects a warm-blooded animal; anything else would be a serovar.

Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium (most current scientific name), the most frequently isolated organism in the U.S.

Salmonella enterica serovar enteriditis (most current scientific name), the most frequently isolated serovars in chicken eggs of PA and NJ.

(There are over 2400 serovars, identified by antigen, antibody testing)

Transmission
Disease of lower animals, spread by dogs, cats, chicken, turkeys (birds), turtles, and snakes (reptiles).

Transmitted passively (source) from feces of frogs (amphibians).

1 in 3 packaged chickens are infected with salmonella. (However, the ID50 is extremely high: 100,000-1billion bacilli.)

Symptoms
Symptoms occur within 3 days, after the bacteria invades epithelial cells in small intestines

Abdominal cramps, diarrhea, which causes 5 million deaths per year worldwide, vomiting, fever, headache. Fever and headache are due to septicemia from the small intestines. Diarrhea can lead to fluid and elecctrolyte loss, and is especially harmful to the very young and very old.

Treatment
Self-limiting: lasts 1-2 days, but the infected host can spread the organism for up to 6 months after the initial infection.

Antibacterial drugs are only given to immunocompromised patients, and they are given ceftriaxone, or cefotaxime.

Complications can occur in very young and very old patients, who lose too much fluids and electrolytes

Typhoid Fever
Salmonella enterica serovar typhi (or just Salmonella typhi)

Transmission
Passed human to human (feces); humans are the only host. (The ID50 is 1,000 to 10,000 bacilli.) Just like salmonella food poisoning, Salmonella typhae tricks epithelial cells phagocytize them then moves from cell to cell without being killed

Symptoms
Fever, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, ulcerations (caused by white blood cells attacking) and even perforations in bowels.

Untreated, can have symptoms for up to 1 month: 10-15% mortality if untreated

Treatment
Ciprofloxacin or Ceftriaxone.