New estimates more precise
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – About 48 million people (1 in 6 Americans) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die each year from foodborne diseases, according new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The figures are the most accurate to date due to better data and methods used. The data are published Wednesday in two articles in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The papers provide the most accurate picture yet of what foodborne
pathogens are causing the most illness, as well as estimating the
proportion of foodborne illness without a known cause. The reports are
the first comprehensive estimates since 1999 and are CDC’s first to
estimate illnesses caused solely by foods eaten in the United States.
“We’ve made progress in better understanding the burden of foodborne
illness and unfortunately, far too many people continue to get sick from
the food they eat,” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, M.D, M.P.H. “These
estimates provide valuable information to help CDC and its partners set
priorities and further reduce illnesses from food.”
CDC’s new estimates are lower than in the 1999 report. The difference
is largely the result of improvements in the quality and quantity of the
data used and new methods used to estimate foodborne-disease. For
example, it is now known that 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. Because of data
and method improvements, the 1999 and current estimates cannot be
compared to measure trends.
CDC’s FoodNet surveillance system data, which tracks trends among common
foodborne pathogens, has documented a decrease of 20 percent in
illnesses from key pathogens during the past 10 years. However, these
FoodNet pathogens make up only a small proportion of the illnesses
included in the new estimates.
Of the total estimate of 48 million illnesses annually, CDC estimates
that 9.4 million illnesses are due to 31 known foodborne pathogens. The
remaining 38 million illnesses result from unspecified agents, which
include known agents without enough data to make specific estimates,
agents not yet recognized as causing foodborne illness, and agents not
yet discovered. In both the 1999 and current estimates, unspecified
agents were responsible for roughly 80 percent of estimated illnesses.
“Foodborne illnesses and deaths are preventable, and as such, are
unacceptable,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. “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.”
Among the additional findings for foodborne illness due to known
pathogens:
* Salmonella was 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, but a much smaller
proportion of severe illness, 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.”
CDC continues to encourage consumers to take an active role in
preventing foodborne infection by following safe food-handling and
preparation tips of separating meats and produce while preparing foods,
cooking meat and poultry to the right temperatures, promptly chilling
leftovers, and avoiding unpasteurized milk and cheese and raw oysters.
The full report is available online at www.cdc.gov/eid. For more
detailed information on the estimates and methods, please visit
http://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/index.html. To learn more about
foodborne illness trends, visit the FoodNet site at
http://www.cdc.gov/FoodNet/. To learn about how to prevent foodborne
illness, visit http://www.foodsafety.gov.
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