A suspected food poisoning outbreak in Jessup, Maryland, has led to the hospitalization of dozens of people, according to local authorities.
On Oct. 21, emergency responders were called to the 7700 block of Chesapeake Bay Court in Jessup for reports of multiple individuals experiencing symptoms of food poisoning, according to the Howard County Fire and EMS.
“Our personnel have evaluated more than 30 patients who reportedly consumed the same food,” the Howard County Fire and EMS stated on Monday in a post on X. Initially, multiple patients were transported to local hospitals, with all cases reported as non-critical.
By Tuesday, the number of affected individuals had risen: “46 total patients were transported to the hospital. All patients were non-critical,” the Howard County Fire and EMS reported in an update.
Multiple agencies responded to the incident, according to the Howard County Fire and EMS, and “mutual aid was provided by Anne Arundel and Baltimore Counties.”
The Howard County Health Department is actively investigating the cause of the outbreak. In a statement released on Monday, the department said, “The Health Department is working with partners to investigate the cause of the incident, which at this time we believe was an isolated event.”
On Tuesday, the department reported that “preliminary indications are that the illness is related to outside food prepared by an employee and shared with others at the facility.”
“At this time we are not aware of any risk of further illnesses connected to this incident,” officials wrote in a post on X.
Both the Fire and EMS department and the Health Department have committed to providing updates as more information becomes available. For further information about the incident and the ongoing investigation, the public is directed to contact the Howard County Health Department at [email protected].
A spokesperson for the health department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by NTD News when asked where the contaminated food was purchased.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, food poisoning, also called foodborne illness, is in most cases the result of bacteria, toxins, parasites, viruses, or chemicals that have contaminated food. The agency said about 48 million cases occur in the United States every year, which is about one in every six people, resulting in an estimated 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths, making the American food supply one of the safest in the world.
When an outbreak occurs, the FDA works with local and state partners and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop the spread and identify the source of the poisoning.
For anyone who wishes to report a problem, they may do so on the agency’s website.