The Northern Territory Department of Health is currently investigating a recent increase in Salmonella infections across Darwin, Palmerston and the rural area. The Department of Health would normally investigate 4–8 cases of Salmonella infection a week in the Darwin urban region but is currently trying to confirm the cause of more than 50 cases.
The Centre for Disease Control and the Environmental Health branch are working to identify the source of the infection and whether there is a common food source among the people affected by Salmonella.
The head of surveillance from the Centre for Disease Control, Dr Peter Markey, said, “Given the number of cases we’ve been alerted to, understandably, we are very keen to quickly identify the source of the problem.
“This cluster is likely to be due to contaminated food and our investigation includes interviewing people affected, inspecting food premises and taking food samples in an effort to identify the source of the current outbreak,” Dr Markey said.
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