El Patron Restaurant, located at 13655 Hwy 43, in Russellville, Alabama, has received an Emergency Order to Cease Operations, this according to James Congleton, the Environment Director of Area 6 of the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH). The restaurant was inspected by the ADPH following three confirmed salmonella cases, and nine suspected salmonella cases, on June 11 and 12 – the inspections led to the Emergency Order to Cease Operations being issued on June 12. The Emergency Order to Cease Operations was based upon a “potentially imminent health hazard.”
Mr. Congleton has stated that El Patron is cooperating, but will remain closed until the ADPH has completed its investigation and come into compliance in all areas. During the inspection, the ADPH took food samples and environmental swabs of different food preparation and storage areas for laboratory testing. The results have yet to be obtained.
El Patron has undergone several recent routine restaurant inspections, during which it received scores of 96, 97, and 99. At present, no source of the salmonella has been identified.
Assistant State Health Officer, Dr. Karen Landers, believes that the threat of additional illnesses is remote. According to salmonella lawyer Ron Simon, however, the number of illness linked to El Patron is likely much higher than the 12 so far identified. According to Mr. Simon, based upon research done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in many outbreaks fewer than 3 percent of the actual victims are ever identified because they either do not seek medical attention or are not adequately tested for food poisoning when they do.
The salmonella lawyers at Ron Simon & Associates encourage all potential victims in this outbreak to seek medical attention to safeguard their health – appropriate reporting also enables local health agencies, such as the ADPH, to act quickly to locate the source and to take appropriate action, as they have done in issuing the Emergency Order to Cease Operations in Russellville, Alabama.
