Food poisoning strikes 1 in 4 Americans each year
Source of Article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hVYMqqan0wdFQcODAzfk2rdj0GQAD96ET68G0 ATLANTA (AP) — Next time you have a case of diarrhea that lasts a day or
more, chances are better than 1 in 3 that it was food poisoning. As many as a
quarter of Americans suffer a foodborne illness
each year — though only a fraction of those cases get linked to high-profile
outbreaks like the recent salmonella-peanut scare, according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Outbreaks are dramatic instances," says Dr. Robert Tauxe, a CDC expert on the subject. But they highlight a
health threat that many people exaggerate and misunderstand, according to
some experts. Scientists have counted more than 250 food-related types of illness — from
viruses to bacteria to parasites. Most common are Norwalk-like viruses —
famous for sickening cruise-ship passengers. They account for about
two-thirds of known food-poisoning cases, according to the CDC. Two types of bacteria, campylobacter and salmonella,
are the next most common. Campylobacter is blamed for about 14 percent of
food poisonings, salmonella for roughly 10 percent. The exact toll of these and other bugs is not really known. Ten years ago, a team of CDC scientists put together the best enduring
estimate of how many Americans get food poisoning each year: 76 million
illnesses, which resulted in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. No more recent figures are available. But the current numbers must be
close to 87 million cases, 371,000 hospitalizations and 5,700 deaths,
according to an Associated Press calculation that used the CDC formula and
current population estimates. The statistics seem even more alarming in the context of a parade of
high-profile food-poisoning outbreaks in recent years: salmonella poisoning
linked to hot peppers and tomatoes from The recent peanut-related salmonella outbreak has caused more than 640
confirmed illnesses in 44 states and been linked to nine deaths. It was
traced to a Virginia-based company, Peanut Corp. of Those numbers just scratch the surface: A case is confirmed only after a
lab test is sent to the CDC. Many sick people just soldier on without even
seeing a doctor. Health officials assume that for every salmonella case, there are three
dozen unreported cases. By that calculation, the latest peanut-related
outbreak actually has sickened closer to 20,000 people. But the problem could be a lot worse. The number of confirmed food poisonings has basically held steady in
recent years. It may seem worse because more advanced testing allows
investigators to better link cases and identify outbreaks, CDC officials
said. Also, despite sometimes dramatic problems in food production and
inspections, the Food poisoning affects an estimated 25 percent of Americans every year.
That compares with roughly 30 percent of people in industrialized countries,
according to the World Health Organization. The toll, of course, is much
higher in developing countries, where diarrheal diseases are a major cause of
death for children. But not all of our food comes from within our borders, as demonstrated by
last summer's vegetable-caused outbreak. "I usually say it is one of the safest in the world," said Tauxe, when asked about the Patients suffering gastric distress sometimes assume food poisoning,
partly because of all the outbreak news and partly because it's human nature,
some doctors said. "I think a lot of people in general say, 'I have symptoms. I must
have eaten something that's caused this,'" said Dr. Andi
Shane, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Patients may not consider an infection came from some other means, like
handling a contaminated tissue, she said. Some may also find the latest outbreak unsettling because it involved a
prepackaged food like peanut butter, said Dr. Akiko Kimura, an epidemiologist
with the California Department of Public Health. "It's ready-to-eat, and so there wasn't anything the consumer could
do," she said. Food disease investigators say their experience has made them careful to
wash their hands, review restaurant inspection reports and think carefully
about the foods they eat. "I am fond of many foods, but I draw the line at eating raw meat and
raw poultry, raw oysters and raw unpasteurized eggs," said the CDC's Tauxe. "I run the cutting boards through our dishwasher," he added. On the Net:
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