More precise estimates than previously available find that one in six Americans suffer foodborne illnesses annually and that 3,000 die of such diseases.
The CDC says the newly released reports are the most accurate to date. They are “the first comprehensive estimates since 1999 and are CDC’s first to estimate illnesses caused solely by foods eaten in the United States.” According to the CDC’s release, these estimates are lower than those in the 1999 report, largely because of “improvements in the quality and quantity of the data used and new methods used to estimate foodborne-disease. ”
The articles are in the January 2011 issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases:
• Foodborne Illness Acquired in the United States—Major Pathogens (PDF)
• Foodborne Illness Acquired in the United States—Unspecified Agents (PDF)
Other findings:
- Salmonella was the leading cause of estimated hospitalizations and deaths
- About 90 percent of estimated illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths were due to seven pathogens: Salmonella, norovirus, Campylobacter, Toxoplasma, E.coli O157, Listeria and Clostridium perfringens.
- Nearly 60 percent of estimated illnesses, but a much smaller proportion of severe illness, was caused by norovirus.
The reports were the subject of a telebriefing this morning; the transcript should be available later.
Additional resources
- Fatal Food: A study of illness outbreaks
- Lifting the shroud: Using multiple-cause-of-death data
- FDA Reform: The Time Has Come (Nancy Donley presentation)
- Why Is It So Difficult to Prevent Foodborne Illnesses? (Michael Doyle presentation)
- Reporting on the intersection of health and the environment
- Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy
- Outbreak Alert! Database
