WASHINGTON — There are two more confirmed salmonella cases linked to Fig & Olive, the upscale new restaurant in CityCenterDC.
The total now stands at eight, with dozens of suspected cases still waiting for test results.
Four of the confirmed cases were handled at Sibley Hospital in D.C. — all of them turned up in the emergency room with classic salmonella symptoms including abdominal cramping and severe diarrhea.
Dr. Lawrence Ramunno, chief of medicine at Sibley, says they showed up at roughly the same time, an indication that this was more than a stomach virus.
“That’s medicine — you always have to be a detective,” says Ramunno.
It was in the hospital that the investigation got underway. Stool cultures were taken to confirm salmonella, and treatment began with fluids and, in some cases, antibiotics while doctors waited three to five days for the test results.
“As soon as the culture is identified in the lab, actually as soon as we start to see a pattern, we call public health right away,” says Ramunno.
The next step for investigators is to determine what the patients had in common — in this case, the one place where they all ate or drank.
Public health officials then take that information and start collecting environmental and food samples at the site. They too are turned into cultures that take three to five days to process.
Ramunno says one of the toughest decisions for public health investigators is sorting through options and figuring which samples to send to the lab.
“What we learn in these investigations is it could be anywhere,” he says
He notes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has set down standard operating procedures for these investigations “to make sure they cover all the bases right up front.”
And while it seems they should be able to nail down a cause fairly quickly, Ramunno says it may take weeks to figure this one out.
In the meantime, Fig & Olive remains closed. A spokeswoman says the restaurant is cooperating with investigators.
