Baby dies of salmonella from pet turtle
Pastor Dale Morgan
Baby dies of salmonella from pet turtle*
July 06, 2007 08:37am
Article from: AAP
A THREE-week-old girl died of salmonella transmitted by a pet turtle,
while 22 other people have been infected by the reptiles across the
United States since September, health authorities said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed the
incidents in a weekly report dated Friday reminding Americans of the
health risks associated with small turtles, whose sale was banned in
1975 because they can infect children.
The infant girl was taken to a Florida hospital, where she was in
febrile and in septic shock, on February 20.
She was given antibiotics but died on March 1, the CDC said in its
'Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.'
Cultures of cerebrospinal fluid and blood samples taken from the infant
found a type of salmonella identitical to the one carried by the turtle,
it said.
The turtle, which had a 3.2-centimetre shell, had been given to the
family in January by a friend who bought it at a flea market.
The 1975 law bans the sale of turtles with a carapace fewer than 10
centimeters (four inches) long.
"Small turtles have posed a particular danger to young children because
these turtles might not be perceived as health hazards and can be
handled like toys,'' the CDC said.
"Salmonella infections in children can be severe and can result in
hospitalization and occasionally in death,'' it said.
Salmonella can be transmitted to humans by direct or indirect contact
with a turtle or its faeces, the CDC said.
The CDC said that turtle-linked infections continue to occur because the
sales ban is not "fully enforced'' and contains exceptions for
educational purposes.
Salmonella illness remains a "major public health problem in the United
States,'' the CDC said in the report.
An estimated 1.4 million nontyphoidal human salmonella infections occur
each year, causing about 15,000 hospitalizations and 400 deaths, it said.