A Salmonella outbreak in the United Kingdom linked to pork from Romania has sickened 24 people, bringing the total impacted to 32.

Eight people from Ireland are also part of the outbreak and five of them needed hospital treatment.

The infections from Salmonella Bredeney have been reported from July 2017 to July 2019.

In Ireland, one person fell sick in August 2018. The other seven became ill between May 4 and June 3, this year. Those stricken are six adult males and two children who are siblings. There have been no deaths.

Infections only in Ireland and UK
A spokesman from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) told Food Safety News that so far, in addition to Ireland, only the U.K. has reported confirmed cases.

“Other countries reported few cases, up to three cases, but no increases of Salmonella Bredeney infections, these isolates were not sequenced and could not be clarified whether they were part of the same event as the Irish and U.K. cases,” he said.

In July, Andromi Toba de Casa 500-gram packages with a use-by date of Aug. 4 and lot number 17 from Romania was recalled in Ireland because of the presence of Salmonella. The chilled, cooked pork preparation was sold in Polonez stores throughout Ireland. There has been no recall of this product in the United Kingdom.

The Salmonella strain in the recalled food product was the one identified in people in Ireland who have been infected in the outbreak.

From zero to five cases of the outbreak serotype of Salmonella have been recorded annually in Ireland from 2010 to 2018. Salmonella of this serotype with the exact genetic sequence had not previously been detected in the country.

In England, there was an average of 24 cases of Salmonella Bredeney reported between 2013 to 2018.

ECDC and EFSA involvement
The ECDC spokesman said the incident has been mostly dealt with by authorities from Ireland and the U.K.

“In ECDC, the team from the food and waterborne diseases and zoonoses program is closely monitoring the event and has collected the sequences of the human isolates from Ireland and the United Kingdom for a multi-country whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analysis to verify that the cases from both countries were related. At the same time, ECDC has liaised with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for the joint investigation of the outbreak,” he said.

Public health officials in England and Wales are also investigating a Salmonella 4,[5],12:b:- outbreak that has sickened 54 people and is connected with eating at Indian restaurants.

Symptoms of Salmonella infection can include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever within 12 to 72 hours of eating contaminated food. Otherwise healthy adults are usually sick for four to seven days. In some cases, however, diarrhea may be so severe that patients need to be hospitalized.

Older adults, children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients, are more likely to develop a severe illness and serious conditions.