Improper handling of eggs can cause salmonella poisoning, which can have severe consequences, as a 10-year-old girl in Chiayi County who had surgery found out.
The girl showed typical symptoms of salmonella poisoning, including vomiting, fever, stomach pain and diarrhea.
Lee Cheng-hung (李政鴻), a doctor at the county’s Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, said that CAT scans showed that the girl had enteritis complicated by a perforation in the intestine.
During the operation, he found that the wound had been coated with bacteria-infected intestinal fluid, causing severe peritonitis.
Had the girl not been operated on at the time, it would have led to general body-wide sepsis, causing the girl to go into shock, he said.
The infection in the intestines would have grown more severe and, if left untended, would have necessitated the removal of the entire organ, he added.
According to the girl’s mother, the family loves to eat eggs and the girl would often help her crack the eggs when she was making dinner.
Lee said the girl had probably not washed her hands properly after cracking the eggs open, leading to her ingesting the salmonella bacteria when she had dinner.
Eggshells are notorious for being infested with salmonella, Lee said.
Adults in general can combat the effects of salmonella poisoning by drinking lots of liquids and electrolytes, but it might not be as easy for children and elderly people, he said.
Some patients have been known to develop sepsis or meningitis, while children develop severe cases of enteritis complicated by perforations in the intestine, Lee said.
Salmonella is especially rampant during summer, and water, poultry, milk, eggs and meat products are all susceptible, he said.
Care must be taken during food preparation, Lee said, recommending that people use two cutting boards — one for cooked and the other for raw food.
Eggs and meat from poultry should be cooked thoroughly before ingestion, he said.
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