PrintJune 30--SHELBYVILLE, Ill. -- The Shelby County Health Department has cleared all employees at the Shelbyville Subway restaurant of any link to the recent salmonella outbreak.
Testing by the Health Department was completed last week in connection with the May outbreak which involved Subway restaurants in 28 Central Illinois counties. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, 97 cases, between the ages of 2 and 79, were confirmed of illness from the Salmonella serotype Hvittingfoss.
"In an effort to prevent a secondary outbreak, the Department has required food handlers at certain Subway restaurants to be tested and cleared before being allowed to handle food," said Illinois Public Health director Damon T. Arnold. Workers had to have two negative tests before returning to work.
Testing at the Shelby County level has been completed by the county Health Department.
"Everybody's negative and the vegetable samples are negative at the Shelbyville store," said Shelby County Health Department director Steve Melega. "Shelbyville gets a clean bill of health."
Melega stated that there were four confirmed cases of Shelby County residents who had fallen ill with Salmonella, with two cases confirmed linked at both Shelbyville and Pana Subways. However there were "no confirmed cases from eating at the Shelbyville Subway," he said.
"Two of the cases were Tower Hill residents who had eaten at both the Shelbyville and Pana restaurants," Melega said.
He added that one case from southeastern part of the county was hospitalized but that person had eaten at the Mattoon Subway.
Because the outbreak was clustered in Central Illinois, Subway officials say they believe the food itself may have been contaminated at the source and that the food was immediately removed.
"It should be noted that the food handlers are not considered to be the source of the illness. They are customers as well," said Shelbyville Subway owner Mark Dust. "The Subway brand has stringent hand washing and sanitation procedures, as well as requirements for all store staff to use gloves during food preparation and handling."
The Illinois Department of Health reports that there have been no additional cases identified since June 21.
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