Public Health Notice: Outbreak of Salmonella Muenchen infections linked to geckos

OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 27, 2024 /CNW/ - Original Notice

This outbreak investigation is ongoing.
This public health notice will be updated as the investigation evolves.

At a glance

To prevent illness, individuals are advised to practice good hand hygiene and frequent handwashing after contact with reptiles, like geckos, and their environments.

How to protect your health

Reptiles like geckos can carry Salmonella. You can get sick with Salmonella by touching reptiles or their environments and then touching your face, eyes or mouth before washing your hands.

You can also get sick by touching contaminated surfaces or objects in a home or within the exhibit where geckos are kept. This can occur at birthday parties, schools, daycares, museums, science centres, zoos or at a travelling reptile show.

To prevent the direct or indirect spread of Salmonella, follow the advice outlined in this section to help reduce your risk of becoming ill from contact with reptiles (including geckos) and their environments.

Contact your health care provider if you think you're experiencing symptoms of a Salmonella infection.

• Always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately after touching a reptile and anything they eat, or after being in the area where they live, play or have touched surfaces or objects.
• If visiting an exhibit or event with reptiles, wash your hands when you leave animal areas, even if you do not touch the animals directly.
• Clean any surfaces or objects your reptile touches with soapy water followed by a household sanitizer.
• Never kiss a pet reptile.
• Do not keep reptiles in daycare centres, schools, or other facilities with children aged 5 years and under.
• Always supervise children when they touch or play with reptiles.
• Do not let them put reptiles or their supplies near their face, or share their food or drinks with pets.
• Make sure they thoroughly wash their hands after touching reptiles.
• Children 5 years and under should not handle reptiles.
• Keep reptiles and all their food, containers, enclosures and any objects that have been in their enclosures, such as plants or enrichment items, away from the kitchen and other places where food is made or eaten.
• When possible, clean enclosures and accessories outside the home. If this is not possible, use a laundry sink or bathtub and thoroughly clean and sanitize afterwards.
• Clean or bathe reptiles in a dedicated plastic bin, not in the kitchen or bathroom sink.
• Be aware of the specific needs of your reptile. Stress for a reptile can increase the shedding of Salmonella.
• Always keep reptiles in habitats specifically designed for them.
• If you choose to have a reptile, talk to your health care provider or veterinarian about the right pet for your family, especially if your family includes children 5 years and younger, pregnant or immunocompromised people, or adults 65 years of age and over.

This is the second outbreak linked to geckos reported in 2024. On March 22, 2024, a different outbreak of Salmonella Lome was linked to geckos. This investigation was closed on May 14.

Public Health Notice: Outbreak of Salmonella infections linked to geckos

Symptoms

Symptoms typically start 6 to 72 hours after exposure to Salmonella bacteria, and usually last for 4 to 7 days.

Symptoms may include:

• fever
• chills
• nausea
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• headache
• abdominal cramps

Those at higher risk for serious illness include:

• older adults
• young children
• people who are pregnant
• people with weakened immune systems

You can spread Salmonella to other people several days to several weeks after you become infected, even if you don't have symptoms. Salmonella can spread through person to person contact and contact with contaminated surfaces. Most people who become ill from a Salmonella infection will recover fully after a few days without treatment. However, some infections cause severe illness and hospitalization.

Salmonellosis (Salmonella)

Investigation summary

There are 25 confirmed cases of Salmonella Muenchen linked to this outbreak in:

• British Columbia (1)
• Alberta (2)
• Manitoba (1)
• Ontario (13)
• Quebec (2)
• Nova Scotia (3)
• Newfoundland and Labrador (3)

People became sick between August 2020 and September 2024. Three individuals have been hospitalized and one person has died.

Other Salmonella infections are under investigation and we may confirm more illnesses associated with this outbreak.

People who became sick are between 1 and 103 years of age and most of them are female (64%).

Many of the individuals who became sick reported having direct or indirect contact with geckos, or the environments where these pets are kept, before their illnesses occurred. Some people who became sick did not touch or handle the geckos themselves, but lived in the same house where they were kept.

More recent illnesses may continue to be reported in the outbreak because there is a period between when a person becomes ill and when the illness is reported to public health officials. For this outbreak, the illness reporting period is between 16 and 43 days.

There are likely more sick people in this outbreak than the number that has been reported to public health officials. This outbreak may not be limited to the provinces or territories with known illnesses. This is because many people recover without seeing a health care provider and are not tested for Salmonella.

Related links

• Salmonellosis (Salmonella)
• Salmonella and Reptiles
• Pets: Healthy animals, healthy people
• Reptiles and amphibians: Healthy animals, healthy people
• Email subscription service for Public Health Notices

SOURCE Public Health Agency of Canada

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