Kratom supplements have a new side effect: Salmonella

So far, no one has died from this latest outbreak, but 11 people have been hospitalized. The CDC reports that it’s confirmed 28 people in 20 states have contracted the strain of Salmonella, which gives people diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. Public health investigators discovered that the cases were linked when they sequenced the DNA of Salmonella samples collected from the patients. The bacteria were genetically related, which means that the patients probably all contracted Salmonella from the same place.

Public health investigators interviewed the patients, and discovered that several had recently taken kratom in pill, tea, or powder form. The CDC hasn’t tracked the infections back to a single brand or supplier yet. So the agency recommends that “people not consume kratom in any form.”

But this is the first time the drug has been linked to a bacterial outbreak — though not the first time Salmonella has spread through plants. Salmonella, which usually spreads through feces, can make its way to plants through runoff contaminated with poop. (It can also show up during the manufacturing and packaging process, if someone sick is handling the plants there.) While the infection typically clears up on its own in about a week, Salmonella can be especially dangerous to children, the elderly, and people with weak immune systems.

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