Article by Dana Cole from The Sierra Vista Herald - Full Story

SIERRA VISTA — A team of health professionals from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is in Sierra Vista to assist with an investigation that has been frustrating state and local health officials.

A salmonella outbreak that started on Sept. 1 has spiraled to 45 cases, with no answer as to the cause or mode of transmission. State and local health officials have been working together for months in an effort to isolate the source of the problem, only to hit a dead end. Dr. Nicholas H. Gaffga, a CDC epidemiologist who is part of the investigative team out of Atlanta, held a press conference at the Sierra Vista county health office Friday to answer questions about the agency’s role in the investigation.

“We have come here to assist the Cochise County Health Department,” Gaffga said.

Typically, outbreak investigations don’t take this long to resolve.

“It is uncommon to go this far into an outbreak without finding a source,” he said.

While there have been a number of leads, it’s been impossible to come up with a commonality that would provide answers health officials are seeking.