Health agencies are increasingly conducting systematic reviews of foodborne disease outbreak investigations to develop strategies to prevent future outbreaks. We surveyed state and territory health departments to summarise the epidemiology of foodborne disease outbreaks in Australia from 1995 to 2000. From 1995 through 2000, 293 outbreaks were identified, with 214 being of foodborne origin. One...

Foodborne agents cause an estimated 76 million illnesses annually in the United States. Outbreak surveillance provides insights into the causes of foodborne illness, types of implicated foods, and settings of foodborne infections that can be used in food safety strategies to prevent and control foodborne disease. CDC collects data on foodborne disease outbreaks submitted from all states and ter...

Burden of disease (BoD) studies aim to identify the public health impact of different health problems and risk factors. To assess BoD, detailed knowledge is needed on epidemiology, disability and mortality in the population under study. This is particularly challenging for foodborne disease, because of the multitude of causative agents and their health effects. The purpose of this study is to s...

Food safety is an important part of public health linking health to agriculture and other food production sectors. For over a century, developments in food production and new control philosophies have contributed to food safety systems in most developed countries perceived by many to be efficient in the prevention of foodborne disease. Nevertheless, a number of problems still remain dominant, o...

Infant botulism is a rare paralytic disease caused by the microorganism Clostridium botulinum. If an infant swallows enough spores, the spores can colonize the large intestine, multiply and produce toxin. The toxin is absorbed into the body and carried to the nerve endings, which results in muscular impairment. Infant botulism differs from foodborne botulism in where and when the toxin is produ...

Outbreak data and case–control studies have linked some serotypes to certain foods or exposures. Information obtained during outbreak investigation is a key tool in understanding which foods are common sources of pathogens contributing to foodborne infections. During outbreak investigations, illnesses can be linked to a particular food by using epidemiologic or laboratory evidence. We analyzed ...

Introduction: Millions of U.S. residents become ill from foodborne pathogens each year. Most foodborne outbreaks occuramong small groups of persons in a localized area. However, because many foods are distributed widely and rapidly, andbecause detection methods have improved, outbreaks that occur in multiple states and that even span the entire countryare being recognized with incre...