A birthday party, home-made ice cream, and an outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis phage type 6 infection.

An outbreak of food poisoning caused by Salmonella enteritidis phage type (PT) 6 followed a children's birthday party. Thirty of 37 (attack rate 81%) attendees were ill, with diarrhoea and fever being the most common symptoms. One child required hospital admission for rehydration. No deaths occurred. Stool specimens from 24 out of 25 people who submitted them were positive for S. enteritidis PT 6 and one was positive for S. enteritidis PT4. Epidemiological investigation indicated that home-made ice cream was the vehicle of infection. Fresh shell eggs used raw in the ice cream were the likeliest source of infection. No ice cream or eggs were available for microbiological analysis. S. enteritidis PT6 accounts for a small but increasing proportion of all salmonellas in humans and its epidemiology is thought to be similar to S. enteritidis PT4. Thus current recommendations on the use of raw eggs in cooking continue to apply.