The Near-Mythical Beast That Spread an All-Too-Real Disease

January 1996 was, in most respects, a month like any other in Jefferson County, Colorado, the “Gateway to the Rocky Mountains.”* But one thing distinguished that particular month in that particular county in Colorado: an outbreak of salmonellosis among children, most of whom were under 13 years of age. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment found a type of the bacteria called Salmonella enteritidis in at least 39 confirmed cases, and there may have been over 300 more children infected.

Salmonellosis is, itself, not a particularly, it is seen in 42,000 people each year, mostly children. And because salmonellosis often resolves itself in most patients, milder cases tend not to be diagnosed or reported, suggesting that the true number of infections each year may be more than 1.2 million.