More than 100 people have been affected by salmonella bacteria . Photo: Rocky Mountain Laboratories
Health authorities have confirmed salmonella as the cause of an outbreak of food poisoning that’s affected more than 100 people.
Logan City Council shut down the Chin Chin Chinese restaurant at Springwood on Monday after dozens of people presented at hospitals with vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhoea and other symptoms.
At least 110 people were affected, with the number expected to rise again in the next 24 hours as more people report.
The youngest victim so far is two years old, with the eldest in their 80s.
Kristy Bax and her son Lucas dined at the eatery on Saturday night as part of a large birthday party.
“At dinner everything tasted fine, we didn’t notice anything wrong at the time,” she said.
“By lunchtime on Sunday I was in pain, I had the diarrhoea, the vomiting, the sweats and high fever, and Lucas was the same as me,” she said.
“Out of our 29-strong group, we worked out 15 or 16 people were sick by Sunday.”
Ms Bax said paramedics called to their home on Monday suggested rest and seeing their GP, but when she and her son didn’t get better, she called another ambulance to take them to hospital on Tuesday night.
The pair was discharged on Wednesday after being dosed up with nausea and stomach cramp medication as well as plenty of fluids and electrolytes.
“Queensland Health also took samples from us to see what was going on,” Ms Bax said.
Public health physician Dr Kari Jarvinen said the speed and severity of this particular bout of salmonella was concerning, and people who suspect they have it shouldn’t try to be heroes.
“Left untreated, people can become very sick from gastro and the longer they don’t seek treatment the more dehydrated you become and the recovery time increases,” he said.
“People should take general hygiene precautions while sick – such as washing their hands carefully – to avoid spreading germs.”
Dr Jarvinen said anyone affected should stay away from work or other gatherings until they had been clear of the bug for 24 hours – 48 hours for anyone who prepared food.
Tests are continuing, but a Metro South Health spokesman said the bacteria were likely linked to a batch of bad eggs.
The majority of sufferers had eaten the restaurant’s deep fried ice cream, made with egg batter. Others had eaten different foodstuffs containing egg products.
Ms Bax said she couldn’t pinpoint a particular suspect food.
“My daughter ate deep fried ice cream and she hasn’t had any issues at all, whereas my son had only the honey chicken and honey king prawns, and he’s still sick now.”
Ms Bax said she was “not impressed” the restaurant had continued to trade for as long as it did.
“We notified the restaurant on Sunday that something wasn’t right,” she said.
“They were aware something had gone wrong, and they still kept going.”