Foodborne dz in humans and outbreak investigation Flashcards
How many deaths a year from contaminated food or water?
2 million
How many americans die of foodborne illness a year?
3000/year
2 groups of foodborne illness
known foodborne pathogens and unknown agents (80% cases)
What are unspecified agents?
- insufficient data to estimate burden
- knwon agents not yet ID as causing foodborne illness
- microbes/chemical/other known to be in food but ability to cause illness unproven
- agents not yet ID
What are the 4 main pathogens causing EU food-borne outbreaks?
salmonella
viruses
bacterial toxins
campylobacter
Define outbreak
cases clustered in time and space, occurring at higher level than expected
Define epidemic
occurrence of ore cases of disease than expected in a given area or among a specific group of people over a particular period of time
What is main food vehicle in EU causing foodborne illness?
eggs and egg products
What are the steps during a foodborne outbreak investigation?
- preliminary assessment of situation
- communication
- descriptive epidemiology
- food and environmental investigations
- analysis and interpretation
- control measures
- further studies
3 main objectives in controlling and outbreak
- reduce to minimum the number of primary cases
- reduce to the minimum the number of secondary cases
- to prevent further episodes
What is ‘tracing back’?
= control of the source of infection or contamination
What is ‘tracing forward’?
= taking appropriate action to prevent any subsequent spread
Why draw an epidemic curve?
to show the time course of an outbreak
Components of an epidemic curve?
- time of onset of each case
- set time interval (1/3 or less of incubation period)
- include time period before and after (2 incubation periods)
- unknown dz: draw several epidemic curves with different units and select the one that best represents the data
What epidemic pattern is this?
point source (1 incubation period)
