Thirteen soldiers are in hospital in the west following a salmonella poisoning outbreak, which is being linked to food consumed at a barbecue held at a barracks in Galway city. A total of 48 people have been infected, it was confirmed last night.
Those infected attended a barbecue on Thursday night last at the barracks in Renmore. As a consequence, yesterday eight people were in hospital in University College Hospital, Galway; two in Letterkenny General Hospital, Co Donegal, and three in Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinalsoe, Co Galway. Members of Permanent Defence Forces and FCA reserve force are among those being treated, a spokesman for the Defence Forces said. "They have been very ill, but are recovering."
This is the second major food poisoning outbreak to have affected Army personnel within the past two years; the other involved UNIFIL troops in the Lebanon. It was also linked to a barbecue where more than 60 became ill and home-made egg mayonnaise was implicated.
Western Health Board public health staff were attempting to find the source of the latest outbreak and working in close co-operation with Army medical personnel, the Defence Forces spokesman said.
The outbreak follows four salmonella outbreaks in Wicklow and Donegal in the past month, which were linked to eggs imported from the North and infected more than 150 people, 16 of whom were taken to hospital.
These prompted an alert from the Food Safety Authority, which warned that people should not consume raw eggs or raw egg pro ducts including home-made mayonnaise and other sauces. It also advised those involved in catering for large groups to use pasteurised eggs in making such products.
It was not possible to link the Renmore outbreak to eggs at this point, the spokesman said, though the eight PDF personnel in University College Hospital were found to have food poisoning caused by the salmonella bacterium. "We have established that the outbreak was garrison-based and not due to any restaurant in the Galway area where they might have eaten."
Symptoms for the infection include diarrhoea, vomiting and cramps, and sometimes also fever and headache. The bacterium may take up to 36 hours to incubate in the body. The very young, the very old, pregnant women or those compromised by illness are most at risk.
The barbecue was held to mark the completion of the annual training week by the 16th Battalion of the FCA which is based in Athlone, Co Westmeath. Permanent Defence Forces troops and officers also attended.
The health board staff have taken away food samples for analysis and checked menus used over the past week at the barracks. The barracks cookhouse has been cleared for use, the spokesman said, but as a precaution until laboratory tests were completed and the source traced, they were not serving raw foods. By the end of last year, 15 claims for compensation were made against the Department of Defence by soldiers affected by the Lebanon outbreak. One case was settled out of court for £2,500, while a private was awarded £3,000 at Kilkenny Circuit Court in January this year arising from the episode. The court heard he was so ill that he had to be taken by helicopter to the UNIFIL hospital in Naqoura.
The organisation representing members of the Defence Forces, PDFORRA, admitted some embarrassment when details of the food poisoning claims emerged, coinciding with a huge rise in Army hearing compensation cases but blamed the culture within the forces' management for the rash of claims.
