DENVER — Gov. Bill Ritter today toured the town of Alamosa, where dozens of people have been affected by an outbreak of salmonella.
Ritter said he was impressed with the response of local public heath officials response to the outbreak.
“They very much have the situation under control,” Ritter said, although he said. “We likely have not seen the last case of it because there is incubation period.”
It could be three weeks before Alamosa residents can drink water from the tap, after health officials linked the outbreak to the water system.
The governor said officials continue to test to confirm the connection.
“They are fairly certain that the water system is the source — although not 100 percent,” he said.
Ned Calonge, chief medical officer for the state health department, said Friday an epidemiological analysis indicates the municipal water system is the source of the rare outbreak.
As of Friday, 138 cases of salmonella linked to the outbreak had been reported in people from infancy to age 89. Of those, 47 were confirmed by lab testing and seven of them have been hospitalized, Calonge said.
Alamosa, a southern Colorado town with about 8,500 residents, gets its water from a deep-well system and it is not chlorinated.
Officials plan to flush the water system to clean it out on Tuesday, and it could be days after that before the water safe.
Local officials are using reverse-911 calls to contact residents and plan to leaflet every home and business in the town, Ritter said.
Ritter declared an emergency Friday in Alamosa County, which activates the Colorado National Guard and provides up to $300,000 for emergency-response efforts.
He said the town has rallied to deal with the problems.
“It’s such a resilient community,” he said. “It’s not unlike Holly after the tornado struck. I have been heartened by how much the people are working together to resolve this issue and what a community spirit exists.”
