Public health investigators have closed a Bellevue IHOP for the third time in three months after another diner became sick with a salmonella infection in June. The IHOP at 14747 N.E.

20th St. has now been linked to six infections in the last several months, despite being repeatedly closed, disinfected and reopened. The restaurant was first shuttered for two days in April, then again between late May and early June.

The pancake house most recently closed again on Thursday, June 27, after another case was confirmed. The source of the outbreak has not been identified, though the state Department of Health has confirmed the first three King County infections were associated with a national salmonella outbreak potentially linked to contaminated onions sold in Washington and other states, said Kate Cole, spokesperson at Public Health – Seattle & King County. Public Health has also said the people who got sick ate a wide variety of IHOP breakfast foods.

“While not common, this type of scenario is not unheard of,” Cole said in an email Wednesday. “Salmonella can be persistent and elusive in food service environments ..

. and can live on surfaces — including in crevices, carpet or HVAC systems — for long periods of time.” Public health investigators visited the restaurant in mid-January, after the first three infections emerged and were traced back to IHOP meals from October and November.

They reviewed IHOP’s food-preparation processes, but didn’t identify the cause o.