'Tis the season for foodborne illness

Nearly 48 million Americans get sick every year from foodborne illnesses annually.  That's one out of every six people.

 

Today, new information from the Center for Disease Control about which foodborne pathogens are causing the most sickness.  

The CDC estimates 9.4 million illnesses annually are due to 31 known foodborne pathogens.  Very young children are at high risk, as are the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

The remaining 38 million illnesses result from known agents without enough data to make specific estimates, agents not yet recognized as causing foodborne illness, or agents not yet discovered. 

In both the 1999 and current estimates, unspecified agents were responsible for roughly 80 percent of estimated illnesses.

"We must, and can, do better by intensifying our efforts to implement measures that are prevention-oriented and science-based. We are moving down this path as quickly as possible under current authorities but eagerly await passage of new food safety legislation that would provide us with new and long overdue tools to further modernize our food safety program.", said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. 

The difference in numbers is largely the result of improvements in the quality and quantity of the data used and new methods that differ from 1999 used to estimate foodborne disease. 

These estimates are also the CDC's first estimates of  illnesses caused solely by foods eaten in the United States.

CDC's FoodNet surveillance system data, which tracks trends among common foodborne pathogens, has documented a 20 percent decrease in illnesses from key pathogens during the past 10 years.  

These FoodNet pathogens make up only a small proportion of the illnesses included in the new estimates.

 

Most norovirus is not spread by the foodborne route, which has reduced the estimate of foodborne norovirus from 9.2 to approximately 5.5 million cases per year, according to the new articles in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.  

Among the additional findings for foodborne illness due to known pathogens:

• Salmonella is the leading cause of estimated hospitalizations and deaths, responsible for about 28 percent of deaths and 35 percent of hospitalizations due to known pathogens transmitted by food.
• 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 was caused by norovirus.

"People expect food to nourish them, not to harm them. So we need to intensify efforts to decrease the number of illnesses and deaths due to foodborne diseases," said Christopher Braden, M.D., director of CDC's Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases. "We now know more than ever what pathogens are causing the most harm, and we will continue our work to help protect people from these illnesses. Much that remains unknown about how and why people get sick and we are committed to learning more in the future."

Nearly 128,000 people are hospitalized, and 3,000 die each year from foodborne diseases, according to the new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC encourages consumers to prevent foodborne infection by following safe food-handling and preparation tips of separating meats and produce while preparing foods by cooking meat and poultry to the right temperatures, promptly chilling leftovers, and avoiding unpasteurized milk and cheese and raw oysters.

 

For more information on safe food handling, check out the US Department of Agriculture.