The global burden of trichinellosis

Trichinellosis is a cosmopolitan foodborne disease that may result in severe health disorders and even death. Despite international awareness of the public health risk associated with trichinellosis, current data on its public health impact are still lacking. Therefore we assessed, for the first known time, the global burden of trichinellosis using the Disability-Adjusted Life Year metric. The global number of DisabilityAdjusted Life Years due to trichinellosis was estimated to be 76 per billion persons per year (95% credible interval: 38–129). The World Health Organization European Region was the main contributor to this global burden, followed by the WHO region of the Americas and the World Health Organization Western Pacific region. The global burden of trichinellosis is much lower than that of other foodborne parasitic diseases and is in sharp contrast to the high budget allocated to prevent the disease in many industrialised countries. To decrease the uncertainty around the current estimates, more knowledge is needed on the level of underreporting of clinical trichinellosis in different parts of the world. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2014.05.006 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: http://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-108995 Accepted Version Originally published at: Devleesschauwer, Brecht; Praet, Nicolas; Speybroeck, Niko; Torgerson, Paul R; Haagsma, Juanita A; De Smet, Kris; Murrell, K Darwin; Pozio, Edoardo; Dorny, Pierre (2015). The low global burden of trichinellosis: evidence and implications. International Journal for Parasitology, 45(2-3):95-99. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2014.05.006 International Journal for Parasitology Succinctus The global burden of trichinellosis Brecht Devleesschauwer, Nicolas Praet*, Niko Speybroeck, Paul Torgerson, Juanita A Haagsma, Darwin Murrell, Edoardo Pozio, Pierre Dorny a Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium; b Institute of Health and Society (IRSS), Université catholique de Louvain, Clos Chapelle-aux-Champs 30, 1200 Brussels, Belgium; c Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nationalestraat 155, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium; d Section of Epidemiology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 270, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland; e Erasmus MC, Department of Public Health, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands; f Department of Veterinary Disease Biology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Stigbojlen 4, DK-1870 Frederksberg C, Denmark; g Department of Infectious, Parasitic, and Immunomediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy. * These authors contributed equally to this work ° Corresponding author: Brecht Devleesschauwer; Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium; Tel.: +32 9 264 7328; E-mail: [email protected]