Posted on 01/21/2005 12:55:31 PM PST by Calpernia
THE extent of a food poisoning outbreak at two Turkish restaurants in Melbourne's inner-north continues to grow, with authorities investigating more than 400 suspected cases.
The Department of Human Services (DHS) has confirmed 24 cases, with seven people in hospital, including an 18-month-old baby.
The Alasya Restaurant and Alasya 2, both in Sydney Road, Brunswick, were closed on Wednesday night after the outbreak was discovered. They underwent heavy cleaning yesterday.
Bread from an adjoining bakery, Alasya Cakes, which was distributed to a number of restaurants and cafes around Melbourne, was recalled today after the department discovered it had not undergone the same stringent cleaning process as the restaurants.
The restaurants would remain closed while local council, health officials and the DHS investigated the cause, the DHS said.
DHS acting chief health officer Dr John Carnie said the bakery was allowed to remain open after the bread recall and cleaning.
He said the bakery had a separate kitchen to the restaurants, but shared a staff toilet.
"We were under the impression that the bakery would be cleaned up yesterday and when I became aware that that hadn't happened last night I instructed them to carry out that clean out immediately this morning," he said
"(Then) when I became aware of the fact that some of the bread that had been baked (there) had been delivered I instructed the proprietor to recall that – which they have done."
He stressed that the risk of infection through bread was highly unlikely.
"Bread in itself is a very low-risk product, it is not one that's generally associated with the transmission of infections."
Dr Carnie said the department had been overwhelmed with more than 400 calls from people reporting illness after eating at the restaurant between January 8 and 19.
"We are now going through the rather painstaking task of interviewing these people to find out the range of dates they had eaten at the restaurant and what sort of food they had consumed," he said.
Dr Carnie said they reported gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea.
A 16-year-old girl, a 36-year-old woman and a 40-year-old woman were taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital yesterday and released today, but another four were admitted last night, including an 18-month-old baby, he said
Dr Carnie said there was one confirmed isolation of a salmonella infection in one of the patients, but the source of the outbreak had not been identified.
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