While Germany and other areas of Europe are battling a new strain of e. coli in an outbreak that has already claimed the lives of 22, the numbers for people sickened by a related strain in the US has dropped dramatically. Both the US and European strains of e.coli can cause kidney disease and if not treated properly, can also lead to death.

The bigger threat for Americans, however, is salmonella, according to the Centers of Disease Control (CDC). That agency release its annual report on food bourne diseases just in time for the summer grilling season, a period when there is a sharp rise in these types of illnesses. According to the CDC, e.coli and potentially harmful food illnesses have been steadily decreasing for the last fifteen years while salmonella continues to be a major threat. The CDC report shows that salmonella infections have actually risen ten percent in the last decade or more accounting for fifty million stricken people each year. That number works out to be one in every six adult Americans suffering from the ill effects of salmonella poisoning.

In 2010, the CDC tracked 20,000 food related illnesses that included 4200 people who were treated at hospitals and 68 people who died. Those numbers include salmonella and eight other types of food poisoning. For salmonella alone, there were 8200 reported illnesses including 2300 people who had to go to the hospital and 29 who died. But, the CDC stressed that the problem might be even more serious: for every single incident of salmonella poisoning that is reported, there might be nearly thirty that go undetected. The same salmonella incident can affect a group of people differently- for instance, only one or two people can become violently ill and may dismiss their symptoms as something else.

The CDC is encouraged by new egg safety rules which should decrease egg related salmonella infections by over fifty percent, but that number may only account ten percent of all salmonella cases overall. e. Coli and other illnesses have dropped dramatically because of better testing procedures, better and cleaner slaughterhouse techniques and because of better consumer related education.

Eggs and poultry remain the top causes of salmonella bacteria infection. There are over 2000 varieties of salmonella with only a few of them harmful to humans. Last May, there were over half a billion eggs recalled, nationwide after salmonella was found in several different egg producing farms. Thousands of people were sickened in an ongoing outbreak which led to a number of questions about egg producers and ways to protect the consumer from these bacterial infections.

People come in contact with salmonella and may never become sick from it. Symptoms of an illness will begin within 12 to 72 hours of the initial contact and may last four to seven days, depending on overall health status. Symptoms can range from simple nausea and sweating to more serious problems including severe vomiting and diarrhea which can lead to dehydration.