More than half a billion eggs have been recalled in the US this month following an outbreak of salmonella, a bacterium that causes food poisoning and worse.
The country’s Centers for Disease Control and Infection (CDC) reported 2000 cases of salmonella infection between May and August this year, three times the average annual number.
Tuoi Tre asked Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen of the Vietnam Poison Control Center at Hanoi’s Bach Mai hospital about the danger of salmonella infection in Vietnam.
His center has treated many serious cases of salmonella infection, he said.
“Usually, people fall ill after eating infected eggs, tiet canh (raw blood soup), or nem tai (pig ear spring rolls). The department of infectious diseases gets many patients with symptoms similar to typhoid.”
Salmonella can cause septicemia, leading to typhoid, and poses high risk of death. There is a widespread occurrence in animals, especially in poultry and swine while environmental sources include water, soil, insects, animal feces, raw meats, raw poultry, and raw seafood.
The symptoms of salmonella infection usually appear in six hours’ time and include nausea, diarrhea, and fever.
Vietnamese usually leave the dirt on the eggs. Some even consider it as proof they are of Vietnamese origin or new. He was referring to the scares in recent years over imported foods.
“Salmonella infected eggs that have been recalled in the US have clean and bright shells. Eggs sold in Vietnamese markets have dirty shells with dry feces on them. Just by looking at them, we can say the eggs we eat every day have a higher chance of infection than theirs [American eggs].”
Doctors from the Vietnam Doctors from the Vietnam Poison Control Center said that besides bad hygiene another reason why the virus is hard to control in Vietnam is that food regulators have never done any investigation or given specific warnings about infections like salmonella from eggs.
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