Contaminated food or surfaces pose a risk to humans. Salmonella can develop more easily in foods that contain particularly high levels of fat.
Salmonella illness usually consists of acute intestinal inflammation with sudden onset of diarrhea, headache, abdominal pain, malaise, and sometimes vomiting. It is often accompanied by a slight fever. Symptoms often last for several days. Young children or older adults may be dehydrated as a result of the illness. Rarely, skepticism may result.
Salmonella may also colonize other organs. Complications occasionally occur as abscesses, septic arthritis, cholecystitis, endocarditis, meningitis, pericarditis, pneumonia, pyoderma, or pyelonephritis. Elderly people are at greater risk. People rarely die from Salmonella infection, and if they do, only the elderly or immunocompromised.
