DENVER ZOO'S LIZARDS SPREAD SALMONELLA.

Byline: Associated Press 

When Taina Vitt took her 6-year-old son Coleton to the Denver Zoo to see the Komodo dragons, he got almost close enough to touch the giant lizards - and close enough to contract salmonella.

Within three days, Coleton developed bloody diarrhea, vomiting and a 104-degree fever. He apparently had grabbed some straw from the pen of one of the four reptiles.

"There was a time I didn't think he'd live, he was so badly dehydrated," his mother said.

The boy was among 50 people stricken with a rare, particularly virulent type of salmonella bacteria after visiting the Denver Zoo exhibit during five days in January. Eight people, including Coleton, were hospitalized.

Some of the victims had stroked one of the reptiles as it was being held by a zoo employee, while others had simply touched the tops and sides of the wooden enclosure, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

In a preliminary report Thursday, the CDC said that of the four Indonesian lizards on display, one tested positive for the salmonella strain.

The dragons had been moved into the wooden enclosure from their usual glass cage for the zoo's "Dragon Days" exhibit. It was not known how many people visited the exhibit.

The victims ranged in age from 3 months to 23 years, with most under 14, said Dr. Richard Hoffman, an epidemiologist with the Colorado Health Department. Seventy-eight percent of the victims developed bloody diarrhea, compared with 40 percent to 50 percent during a typical salmonella outbreak. No zoo employees were infected.

The Komodos apparently defecated in the enclosure and then walked around in it, spreading the particularly virulent bacteria to the barriers, Hoffman said.

The dragons have been returned to their glass cage, where visitors cannot touch them or the inside of the enclosure, and will never go on exhibit again, zoo spokeswoman Suzanne Juhas said.

"This was considered a one-time event," she said.

About 30,000 cases of salmonella are reported each year in the United States, according to the CDC. Many people who get it don't even realize it. But in babies, the elderly or those with AIDS, the bacteria can kill.

Most cases are contracted from raw or undercooked chicken, beef or eggs.

The CDC reported in 1995 that 90 percent of reptiles carry salmonella in their feces. And in 1994 and 1995, health departments in 13 states reported unusual strains of salmonella bacteria that were traced back to reptiles.