Test results of a stool sample from a 14-year-old child who was poisoned after eating Bang bread in Dong Nai showed positive for Salmonella bacteria.
On the evening of May 6, a representative of Children’s Hospital 2 (HCMC) announced the above results. The boy was admitted to the hospital because of fever and diarrhea with green liquid stools after eating bread and was transferred to Ho Chi Minh City. The doctor diagnosed a bacterial intestinal infection and prescribed antibiotics and supportive medications. Currently, the baby’s symptoms have improved.
Salmonella is the leading culprit causing diarrhea globally, including many large-scale poisoning cases, according to the World Health Organization. Entering the human body through food and drink, Salmonella bacteria produce toxins that damage the intestinal mucosa, causing abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. If not rehydrated promptly, the patient will become dehydrated, have low blood pressure, hypotension, multi-organ failure, and even death. Large amounts of bacteria can enter the bloodstream, causing life-threatening sepsis.
Salmonella grows very quickly in hot and humid environments (35-37 degrees Celsius). When slaughtering livestock and poultry, if not cleaned properly, Salmonella bacteria will spread into the environment and stick to foods such as meat and poultry eggs. Eating raw eggs, or not boiling eggs properly, people can also be infected with Salmonella bacteria. Vegetables and milk are also susceptible to Salmonella spread from animal feces.
Two days ago, blood tests of three critically ill children treated in Dong Nai showed that they were infected with E.coli bacteria. This is a bacteria that often appears in fresh products, beef, fresh milk, juice, cheese, raw fruits and vegetables…
Compared to Ecoli, poisoning caused by Salmonella has more severe and dangerous symptoms. Food poisoning due to Salmonella can appear one day after eating, but there are also cases after 4-5 days. Salmonella bacteria are the culprit that caused food poisoning for hundreds of students in Nha Trang, of which one child died, in 2022.
Salmonella spp. Image: biomerieux
As of today, the number of people poisoned after eating bread in Long Khanh City has increased to 560. They ate meat bread bought at Bang store on the afternoon of April 30, and have been hospitalized one after another in recent days. More than 200 patients have been discharged from the hospital, 119 cases are being monitored for treatment at home, and 12 severe cases have to be transferred to the hospital.
The most severe case is a 6-year-old boy treated at Children’s Hospital 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, on a ventilator, dialysis, and vasopressor. Another serious case is a 7-year-old child, treated at Dong Nai Children’s Hospital, and his health is now improving.
It is expected that test results of food samples collected at this bakery will be available today.