The CDC's backyard-poultry salmonella outbreak page carried the same Wednesday numbers into Friday: 184 people sick across 31 states, 53 hospitalized, one death in Washington state. Twenty-five percent of the cases are children under five. Seventy-eight percent of those interviewed reported recent contact with backyard chickens or ducks. Investigators have linked the strains to five hatcheries. [1][2]

The plain-English version: nothing moved on the public ledger between the May 14 print and Friday afternoon, but the holiday weekend is when the exposure pattern repeats. Kids under five make up about 6% of the U.S. population and a quarter of the people in this outbreak, because they put hands in their mouths and they kiss birds. Strains include Salmonella Enteritidis, Mbandaka, and Saintpaul. [2]

The paper's May 21 brief took the position that the pediatric denominator was the part to remember; nothing in the Friday update changed that. The Memorial Day household guidance is the same the CDC has published since 2019: hands washed with soap after every bird contact, no chick-kissing, a dedicated pair of coop shoes that does not enter the house, and the youngest kids kept away from the run. The federal grilling chart at 165°F for poultry is the same household reading on the other side of the same backyard. [1][2]

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago