ALMOST 100 salmonella cases are now under investigation as the Dean Street eatery at the centre of the outbreak yesterday closed its doors.
Health authorities say seven cases have been confirmed as salmonellosis but expect that number to rise.
All are linked to eating at The Burger Bar from Thursday to Saturday last week.
It is now believed a batch of aioli, a garlic mayonnaise that includes raw egg, may be the cause of the salmonella outbreak.
Ninety-six cases are now under investigation.
More than 70 people have been interviewed by Albury’s public health unit and countless blood tests are outstanding.
A total of 69 suspected cases have been seen at emergency departments at Wodonga and Albury since last Friday.
Anecdotal evidence suggests the number of people hospitalised with the potentially deadly bug is also on the rise.
The Border Mail was yesterday made aware of at least a further four cases where the victims were hospitalised or remain in hospital.
There is also growing community anger that the outbreak was not made public until late on Thursday with one man
battling the illness on his own in the mistaken belief it was a bad case of gastro.
Health authorities yesterday confirmed they were first made aware of a possible problem last Sunday.
Burger Bar owners Adrian Whitehead and Karen Davis last night posted a message to customers on their restaurant’s Facebook page.
The message confirmed they had closed the restaurant for the weekend until tests confirmed the source of the salmonella.
“Working together this week with NSW Health and the NSW Food
Authority, we are almost certain that this outbreak has been caused by an infected batch of eggs (or maybe just one egg, that’s all it takes) we have received from a local farm,” they said.
The couple said as soon as they were notified there was an issue and that the eggs were suspected they stopped using their home-made sauces and switched to store-bought products.
“We will continue to do so from now on,” the post said.
Acting director of
Albury’s public health unit, Alison Nikitas, said yesterday The Burger Bar closed voluntarily.
Mrs Nikitas said
officers had interviewed 70 of the suspected cases and defended delays in making the outbreak public.
“It has been a busy week,” she said.
“We were made aware of a potential problem by the Albury Base Hospital last Sunday.
“Our officers began
investigating on Monday and council inspectors were sent to the eatery that afternoon.
“At that stage we were unsure of what the cause was and notified GPs and emergency departments on Wednesday when the cases were confirmed (as salmonella).”
Yesterday a spokeswoman for the NSW Food Authority said it was awaiting the results of the food samples.
“The NSW Food
Authority has a range of enforcement tools available but in serious cases fines of up to $400,000 for a corporation and up to $83,000 for an individual apply,” she said.
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