"Because the investigation is ongoing and we’re still trying to narrow down our focus, we don’t want to prematurely implicate people or institutions — or do anything that might compromise the investigation," said Tim LaFountain, district epidemiologist at the Staunton-Augusta Health Department, after a recent salmonella outbreak in Augusta County.

LaFountain said that health experts were still trying to establish the scope of the outbreak, and cautioned residents to practice normal, good hygiene, and to report symptoms of severe abdominal pain, fever and vomiting to their family health practitioners, and that the outbreak is under investigation by health authorities, who declined to disclose the location or time of the disease’s discovery.