CDC: Norovirus and
Salmonella Top Causes of Foodborne Disease Outbreaks in 2006
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Article: http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/48753617-cdc-norovirus-and-salmonella-top-causes-of-foodborne-disease-outbreaks-in-2006 By admin - Posted on June 16th, 2009 Tagged:
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CDC report provides look into foods associated with
outbreaks
June 11, 2009 -- Norovirus and Salmonella were
the leading causes of foodborne disease outbreaks in 2006, according to a
report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The
report, based on investigations of foodborne disease outbreaks provides the
most recent report of how many illnesses were linked to specific types of
foods. There were 1,270 reported foodborne disease
outbreaks in 2006, which resulted in 27,634 illnesses and 11 deaths,
according to the surveillance report prepared by the agency’s OutbreakNet
team. Among these 1,270 outbreaks, 621 had a confirmed single cause; the
cause was most often norovirus (54 percent of outbreaks), followed by Salmonella
(18 percent of outbreaks). The analysis was done on data from the 243
outbreaks in which a single food commodity was identified and reported to CDC. Foodborne outbreaks of norovirus occur most often
when infected food handlers do not wash their hands well after using the
toilet; foodborne outbreaks of Salmonella occur most often when foods that
have been contaminated with animal feces are eaten raw or insufficiently
cooked. The food commodities associated with the largest
number of cases of illness in 2006 were poultry
(21 percent of all outbreak-associated cases), leafy vegetables
(17 percent), and fruits-nuts
(16 percent). The food commodity categories defined by CDC are fish,
crustaceans, mollusks, dairy, eggs, beef, game, pork, poultry, grains-beans,
oils-sugars, fruits-nuts, fungi, leafy vegetables, root vegetables, sprouts,
and vegetables from a vine or stalk. “Determining the proportion of
outbreak-associated cases of foodborne illness due to the various food
commodities is an important step,” according to Patricia M. Griffin, M.D.,
chief of CDC′s Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch. “Identification of
particular food commodities that have caused outbreaks can help public health officials and the food industry to target control efforts from the farm to the
table.” However, Griffin cautions that while this report
is useful, only a small proportion of foodborne illnesses occur as part of
recognized outbreaks. Moreover, some outbreaks are not detected,
investigated, or reported because many states lack the resources to perform
the work. The full report, “Surveillance for Foodborne
Disease Outbreaks – United States, 2006” appears in this week′s
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (June 12, 2009) and is available online
at www.cdc.gov/mmwr. CDC′s OutbreakNet Team collaborates with
the national network of epidemiologists and other public health officials who
investigate outbreaks of foodborne, waterborne, and other enteric illnesses
in the United States. The OutbreakNet Team works in partnership with state
and local health departments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration,
and PulseNet,a national surveillance network of state and local public health
laboratories and federal food regulatory agency laboratories that perform
pulsed-field gel electrophoresis on bacteria that may be found in food. The purpose of CDC′s OutbreakNet Team is to
ensure rapid, coordinated, detection and response to multi-state outbreaks of
enteric diseases and to promote comprehensive outbreak surveillance. The
OutbreakNet Team seeks to improve collaboration and partnership among
officials in local, state, and federal agencies who work on foodborne and
diarrheal disease outbreak surveillance and response. To learn more about OutbreakNet, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/outbreaknet.
Source: CDC |
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