ATLANTA — Four metro Atlanta residents have been infected in a salmonella outbreak possibly linked to sushi, state health officials said.
News of the outbreak spread Wednesday when an internal memo from the Food and Drug Administration indicated that a group of people infected with salmonella had eaten spicy tuna roll.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said no single food source, including sushi, has been conclusively linked to the outbreak.
So far there have been 93 cases of the bacterial illness, health officials said. Of the four cases in Georgia, three are in Fulton County and one in Cobb County. Two of those patients have been hospitalized. All of the cases were reported between Feb. 11 and March 18.
Channel 2's Diana Davis talked to Dr. Patricia Meadors at Piedmont Hospital who said that salmonella is often treated in the emergency room. The most common symptoms include diarrhea and severe abdominal cramps.
"The red flag is higher fever, blood in your stool and more abdominal pain than you usually get if you just had the stomach flu,"Meadors said.
Meadors said that if the current outbreak is eventually linked to sushi it may never be known how it happened.
"Any raw fish can be contaminated. It has to do with the way it's caught and stored and transported," she said. "Thousands of people eat sushi every day and are pretty fine."
State and county officials are interviewing the local patients who got sick.
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