New Case Expands Investigation Into Outbreak Officials Link Bacteria To Island Park Campground

A case of a rare bacterial infection linked to an Island Park campground has expanded the scope of an investigation into a shigellosis outbreak in the area.

But health officials do not believe the case is connected to a rash of shigellosis cases at an Island Park hotel. An investigation continues to center on the well water at Sawtelle Mountain Resort near Henry’s Lake.

More than 50 people have come down with shigellosis, an infection that causes vomiting, diarrhea, cramps and fever, and can be fatal to children or the elderly. State health department workers began sorting out the cause and the extent of the outbreak on Tuesday.

“You kind of have to paw your way through a lot of hearsay,” Bruce Arnell, director of the District 7 Health Department in Idaho Falls, said Wednesday.

Investigators on Tuesday began calling people who have stayed at Sawtelle Mountain Resort this month. Workers may have to make hundreds of calls to find a common thread in the outbreak. Arnell said the case reported at an Island Park campground was not related to the cases at the resort, but the hotel’s owners consider it evidence of a bigger health problem in the area.

Shigellosis is caused by a powerful bacterium called shigella, which can be found in septic systems or in fecal material.

Well water at Sawtelle Mountain Resort has tested positive for coliform, a different type of bacterium. Coliform can be an indicator of other organisms, such as shigella.

The well at Sawtelle Mountain Resort, which provides drinking water and fills the hot tubs there, has not been tested for shigella.