Homemade Raw Milk Cheese Linked To Utah Salmonella Outbreak

Eleven cases were confirmed in 2009, followed by another 22 cases in 2010. As of Thursday, 40 cases had been confirmed this year.

But as many as 2,100 people may actually have had the infection, which causes nausea, stomach pain, diarrhea and fever. Some may have become ill after consuming the cheese, and others could have contracted the illness by having contact with infected persons.

"We estimate the number of people sickened is 30 times the number of reported cases," DeLegge said. "That's a lot, which is why we are so concerned about it."

Authorities said the soft, Mexican-style cheese was sold to at least one Salt Lake County restaurant and may also have been sold to individual consumers from the cheese-maker's car.

"We think he had a route," DeLegge said, who said the investigation was discussed during a health department board meeting Thursday.

"Mr. Cheese" was identified last summer by authorities after an investigator for the Salt Lake County district attorney's office showed a series of photographs to a restaurant owner.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/11/03/investigation-finds-homemade-cheese-linked-to-utah-salmonella-outbreak/#ixzz1cluSTqqJ