Outbreak of Paratyphoid Fever Caused by Contaminated Street-Vended Food at Qingyang Town, China, 2016


 In 2016, an outbreak of paratyphoid fever occurred in 40 cases at Qingyang town, in China. A case-control study was carried out to determine the source of this outbreak. Case-control study was conducted to identify the risk factors of this outbreak. The cases were identified as patients with isolation of S. Paratyphi, controls were confirmed cases’ healthy classmates, colleagues or neighbors and matched by age (±5 y) and gender. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was performed to source tracking. Totally, 40 cases were reported: 24 cases were students, and 20 (20/24) of them were Qingyang High School students. For the case-control study, consuming Chinese egg pancakes was detected as a risk factor (OR1:1 = 5.000; 95% CI: 1.710-14.640), and hand-washing before meals was protective behavior compared with seldom hand-washing (OR1:1 = 23.256; 95% CI: 2.451-200.000). S. Paratyphi was cultured from a well water sample used for washing contents of the pancakes. Isolates from well water and paratyphoid cases showed the same PFGE patterns. Contaminated well water and Chinese egg pancakes were likely source and vehicle of this outbreak. Health education, especially handwashing, and food safety supervision should be promoted particularly in schools.