This archive report was first published on 4 August 2019.
On July 19, 2019, Nicholas Guzley Jr., a police officer from Washington, fell ill after eating pork at a restaurant in Seattle. He was hospitalized multiple times, experiencing severe symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding, and a fever of 103.9 degrees.
"If you stack up all the pain from all the injuries, this blew it away," Guzley Jr. said, comparing his ordeal to a near-death experience in 2003.
As the number of cases grew, the Washington State Department of Health issued an alert on July 23, 2019, warning of a salmonella outbreak and announcing an investigation into the source of the tainted pork. Dr. Scott Lindquist, the state epidemiologist, led the investigation.
Tests revealed that many of the infected roast pigs had come from Kapowsin Meats, a slaughterhouse. Samples taken from the slaughterhouse showed that eight out of 11 were positive for the resistant salmonella strain.
On July 27, 2019, a restaurant had its permit suspended for food safety violations, including failure to keep its food hot enough. Multiple restaurants and pig roasts were identified as possible sources of the tainted pork.
