Newark health officials have linked the Iberia Peninsula restaurant to at several patrons hospitalized with many still on antibiotics.

According to the New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services, salmonellosis – the condition caused by swallowing the bacteria salmonella, a fecal bacterium – can last for five to seven days, with victims suffering diarrhea, vomiting and, in severe cases, chronic arthritis. The infection is most commonly passed through eating infected meat.

The Star-Ledger reported, “[o]ur inspectors have been there for many hours and we’re reinforcing what they already know,” said Peter Dillon, director of inspections at Newark’s Department of Environmental Health.  The outbreak was first thought to have occurred on Sunday night after a baptism party that saw one man, Angelo Afonso, 71, hospitalized.  Employees at Leslie Furniture said they had frequented the restaurant Saturday and felt their symptoms Sunday, but it wasn’t until Monday that they realized it affected so many people.  Today, city officials said they received reports of another group being infected on Christmas Eve but will not be able to confirm the cases until next week.