An outbreak of food poisoning in a workers' camp in Saudi Arabia caused by Salmonella minnesota.

Between 13 and 16 September 1985, 168 of 419 Filipino workers, living in a camp near Dammam, Saudi Arabia, developed acute gastroenteritis with diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and low-grade fever. The outbreak was confined to those who ate from a single kitchen. The median approximate incubation period of the disease was 34 hours (range 8 to 96 hours). Salmonella minnesota was isolated from the stools and rectal swabs of 34% of the patients. One of the 27 cooks was positive for the organism. There was no infection diagnosed among 390 close contacts of the patients, and the organism was also not grown from samples of leftover or fresh food. All isolates were sensitive to most of the commonly used antimicrobials, except tetracycline and streptomycin. A particular meal served from a single kitchen was tentatively implicated as the source of the outbreak.