Salmonella outbreaks in the Kansas City metropolitan area: varying presentations.

Four outbreaks of Salmonella in the Kansas City metropolitan area between 1996 and 1998 are used to illustrate changes in the epidemiology of foodborne diseases and recognition by public health authorities. Physicians are the critical link in the recognition of foodborne outbreaks, and that linkage is tied directly to their index of suspicion and the appropriate collection and testing of specimens from their patients, as well as notification of the local health department.