In January 1996, the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national public health institute, began strengthening its epidemiologic capacity to respond to emerging and other infectious diseases. Six integrated strategies were initiated: developing employee training, outbreak investigation, and epidemiologic research programs; strengthening surveillance systems; improving communications to program par...

Modern epidemiology of foodborne bacterial pathogens in industrialized countries relies increasingly on whole genome sequencing (WGS) techniques. As opposed to profiling techniques such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, WGS requires a variety of computational methods. Since 2013, United States agencies responsible for food safety including the CDC, FDA, and USDA, have been performing whole-g...

We describe the eleventh major outbreak of foodborne Trypanosoma cruzi transmission in urban Venezuela, including evidence for vertical transmission from the index case to her fetus. After confirming fetal death at 24 weeks of gestation, pregnancy interruption was performed. On direct examination of the amniotic fluid, trypomastigotes were detected. T. cruzi specific-polymerase chain reaction (...

Soft ripened cheese (SRC) caused over 130 foodborne illnesses in British Columbia (BC), Canada, during two separate listeriosis outbreaks. Multiple agencies investigated the events that lead to cheese contamination with Listeria monocytogenes (L.m.), an environmentally ubiquitous foodborne pathogen. In both outbreaks pasteurized milk and the pasteurization process were ruled out as sources of c...

OBJECTIVES In Korea, every outbreak of acute gastroenteritis in two or more patients who are epidemiologically related is investigated by local public health centres to determine causative agents and control the outbreak with the support of the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings and conclusions of each outbreak investigation have been summarized annually since 2007 ...

In this section, I provide articles on recent developments and new technology used in microbiology and related fields. I also post articles that may help you bring new information or techniques into your laboratory or classroom via case studies or lab exercises. I hope you find this information useful, and I encourage you to send suggestions, questions or comments to me at [email protected]...

In June 2021, a cluster of seven cases Campylobacter fetus infections occurred in rehabilitation center and caused significant morbidity elderly patients including five with bacteremia two osteoarticular medical device infections. The genetic identity identified by whole genome sequencing the different strains confirms common source. This foodborne illness outbreak may have resulted from consum...

Public health implications of microbial food safety and foodborne diseases in developing countries F ood is one of the most important transmission routes of diseases globally due to microbial contaminations (1). Global emergence and re-emergence of foodborne pathogens have made microbio-logical safety and quality of food of public and health important (1, 2). Globally, more than 250 sources of ...