Broome County officials reported last week that the county jail is clear of salmonella after an outbreak that sickened hundreds of people.
The sheriff’s office said the first cases were reported on May 25. At its peak, 320 of the approximately 450 inmates had contracted salmonella. Early testing found salmonella in chicken salad served to the incarcerated population on May 24. Twelve people were hospitalized.
At a press conference last Thursday, Broome County Medical Director Dr. Lazarus Gehring said the last two hospitalized people have been discharged. He said they had underlying medical conditions that made them high risk patients.
No one has died as a result of the salmonella outbreak. In an earlier update, Dr. Gehring said statistically they could have expected 8-12 people to die from the salmonella poisoning. Gehring said that is because the jail population has a greater concentration of people with high medical risk factors than the general population.
Olivia Catalano, the county health director, said the jail’s entire kitchen staff has been retrained on food handling safety procedures. She also said the staff, water sources and the food areas were re-tested and are clear of salmonella.
Catalano said test results from the Wadsworth Center, the state health department’s laboratory, confirmed that the strain of salmonella found in chicken salad served to incarcerated people was the same that made people sick.
Trinity Services Group is the food vendor for the jail’s incarcerated population. It is also responsible for training and supervising the kitchen staff, which is made of outside employees and some incarcerated people.
Trinity has a county administrative hearing on June 25 about seven health code violations found during several inspections of the jail. They include citations in April 2023, June 2024, and June 2026 for a violation involving “Potentially hazardous food requiring refrigeration is not cooled by an adequate method…”
Sheriff Fred Akshar said Trinity will remain the jail’s food services vendor for now. He said if a change is made, there has to be a new county bidding process, which takes time.
A local attorney said that he will sue the county and the sheriff on behalf of those who got sick, but a lawsuit has not been filed yet.
