I have a friend who's granddaughter and a friend of hers who had just gone through surgery both caught salmonella at her house which came from her herp room. She actually had a local disease control group come over and test the surfaces in her room and they were able to culture the same bacteria strain from some of those surfaces that was infecting the two people. She's really not that big of a snake keeper and is more of a lizard person and had a number of monitors at the time. But yes, it's not a rumor. People really can get salmonella from their reptiles. I don't think it's nearly as common as the CDC would like you to believe, but it is possible.