The capacity of state and territorial health departments to investigate foodborne diseases was assessed by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists from 2001 to 2002 with a self-administered, Web-based survey. Forty-eight health departments responded (47 states and 1 territory). The primary reason for not conducting more active case surveillance of enteric disease is lack of staff, ...

BACKGROUND Norovirus is increasingly being recognized as a leading cause of foodborne disease. Nevertheless, well documented foodborne outbreaks due to norovirus are rarely found in the literature. MATERIAL AND METHODS A retrospective cohort study was conducted for identifying the source of a gastroenteritis outbreak. A total of 325 persons were identified as the at risk group. RESULTS The ...

Introduction The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH), in collaboration with Yale Emerging Infections Program (EIP), receives funding to particpate in the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) and Foodborne Disease Centers for Outbreak Response Enhancement (FoodCORE). FoodNet is an active population-based surveillance network that monitors trends for ten enteric dise...

The global supply of food has led to an increasingly connected planet, not only in terms of food products but also in terms of risks for foodborne diseases. The fourth edition of Morris and Potter’s Foodborne Infections and Intoxications delivers an in-depth look at the global effects of foodborne illnesses, provides pathogen-specific information, and describes processes and policies intended t...

PROBLEM/CONDITION Foodborne diseases cause an estimated 48 million illnesses each year in the United States, including 9.4 million caused by known pathogens. Foodborne disease outbreak surveillance provides valuable insights into the agents and foods that cause illness and the settings in which transmission occurs. CDC maintains a surveillance program for collection and periodic reporting of da...

Known pathogens cause an estimated 9.4 million foodborne illnesses annually in the United States. CDC collects data on foodborne disease outbreaks submitted by all states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico through CDC's Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System. Data reported for each outbreak include the number of illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths; the etiologic agent; the i...

Public health and food safety officials have long recognized the important role that state agencies play in protecting consumers from foodborne disease. With the increasing occurrence of multi-jurisdictional outbreaks, efforts have been underway to modernize and make more uniform the patchwork of state laws, protocols, and policies that exist across the U.S. for food-borne illness surveillance ...

Glossary Contributing factors: These are determinants that directly or indirectly cause an outbreak. A contributing factor can be biological, behavioral, or attitudinal; or an element of the physical or social environment; or the result of policies related to the problem. Examples include retort, pasteurization, or cooking temperatures that do not destroy or reduce pathogens, poor personal hygi...

The challenge for public health officials is to detect an emerging foodborne disease outbreak from a large set of simple and isolated, domainspecific events. These events can be extracted from a large number of distinct information systems such as surveillance and laboratory reporting systems from health care providers, real-time complaint hotlines from consumers, and inspection reporting syste...