A second elderly resident has died after being infected with a rare strain of salmonella at a Illawarra aged care facility.
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There have now been 25 confirmed cases of salmonella at 10 aged-care facilities in the Illawarra Shoalhaven, ACT and South Eastern Sydney health regions.
Aged care provider IRT has confirmed that 22 of the confirmed cases have occurred at seven of its centres which are spread across the regions.
Late last week NSW Health Communicable Diseases Branch director Dr Vicky Sheppeard confirmed that one aged care resident had died due to the salmonella infection.
A second death was confirmed late on Monday, with NSW Health unable to rule out salmonella infection as a contributing factor.
‘‘To our best understanding the salmonella infection was the cause of death of one elderly patient, in the Illawarra region, who also had several underlying chronic diseases,’’ Dr Sheppeard said.
‘‘The second person at the Illawarra Shoalhaven aged care facility who had been affected by salmonellosis a couple of weeks ago had recovered from the illness, but subsequently died.
‘‘...As far as we understand, the person was seriously frail and had underlying medical conditions and had appeared to have recovered from salmonellosis.’’
NSW Health continues to work with the NSW Food Authority and NSW Health to investigate the outbreak, which has seen nine residents hospitalised.
Cases of salmonellosis first arose on January 21 and Dr Sheppeard said it was possible that further patients may test positive as the investigation continued.
“Patients and their families and carers have been notified of the outbreak and the precautions being taken as part of the ongoing investigations,” she said.
“There is no evidence of a risk to the wider community. We are focussing our efforts on identifying which food or foods may be carrying the infections so we can prevent further cases in the aged care facility residents.”
A NSW Food Authority spokesperson said investigators had taken samples of foods and equipment at the various IRT facilities but had yet to find the source of the outbreak.
‘‘Unfortunately, the results to date do not indicate any particular food group,’’ the spokesperson said.
‘‘Each of the facilities have been inspected and we have not been able to identify any issues with food handling, preparation and cleaning that may be attributed to the outbreak.’’
The food authority has also inspected the premises and taken samples from IRT’s major food suppliers, and again have not uncovered any issues.
IRT Group chief executive Nieves Murray said management continued to communicate directly with affected residents and their families, as well as other residents and staff.
‘‘We have reinforced our existing food handling and infection control procedures across all our sites. The NSW Food Authority has confirmed that adequate controls are in place to ensure the safety of our residents,’’ she said.
‘‘We have withdrawn high-risk foods (including fresh and pre-packaged salads and cold meats) from service at all our care centres, regardless of the supplier.’’
IRT will work with the NSW Food Authority to reintroduce those foods that are found to be safe back into the facilities.
IRT has advised residents or family members with concerns to call 1800132202.