Foodborne Illness

The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH), in collaboration with Yale Emerging Infections Program (EIP), receives funding to particpate in the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) and Foodborne Disease Centers for Outbreak Response Enhancement (FoodCORE). FoodNet is an active population-based surveillance network that monitors trends for ten enteric diseases and conducts special studies to better understand the causes of foodborne illness. FoodCORE develops best practices related to the detection, investigation, and control or disease outbreaks, particularly those due to to Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, and Listeria (SSL). Foodborne disease surveillance and response is a collaborative effort requiring real-time data sharing between key stakeholders including: DPH Epidemiology, DPH Laboratory, DPH Food Protection Program, Yale EIP, and local health department (LHD) staff.

Objective

To develop an integrated system for routine enteric disease surveillance, cluster detection and monitioring, information sharing among key stakeholders, and documentation.

The CDC defines a foodborne outbreak as two or more people getting the same illness from the same contaminated food or drink. These illnesses are often characterized as gastroenteritis until the causative agent is identified (bacterial or viral). Due to the globally interconnected food distribution system, local foodborne disease outbreaks often have global impacts. Therefore, the rapid detection of a gastroenteritis outbreak is of utmost importance for effective control. Situational awareness is important for early warning or detection of a disease outbreak, and tools that provide such information facilitate mitigation actions by civil/military health professionals. We have developed the Surveillance Window app (SWAP), a web based tool that can be used to help understand an unfolding outbreak. The app matches user input information to a library of historical outbreak information and provides context. This presentation will describe our analysis of global civilian and military gastrointestinal outbreaks and the adaptation of the SWAP to enhance situational awareness in the event of such outbreaks.

Objective

The objectives of this project are to identify properties that influence the progression of an outbreak, evaluate the ability of a property-based algorithm to differentiate between military and civilian outbreaks and different pathogens, and develop a decision support tool to enhance situational awareness during an unfolding outbreak.

Nontyphoidal Salmonella, consisting of >2,500 distinct serotypes, is the leading bacterial agent of foodborne illness in the U.S., causing an estimated 1 million infections per year. In NYC, interviews of all case-patients (N≈1,100 annually) are attempted to support outbreak investigation and control. Salmonella clusters in NYC are typically identified either by notification from PulseNet, CDC, or other health departments or by a weekly analysis using the historical limits method. More systematic and timely cluster detection could inform resource prioritization and improve the effectiveness of public health interventions. We initiated daily analyses in May 2015 to detect spatio-temporal clusters by serotype among cases since February 23. In July 2015, an analysis was added to detect purely temporal clusters among cases since May 1.

Objective

To prospectively identify serotype-specific clusters of salmonellosis in New York City (NYC).

Since Cryptosporidium can be transmitted by ingestion of infected food animals and poorly treated water and by direct contact it is possible for infection to occur through ingestion of under cooked frogs and through handling and processing of infected frogs. In Burkina Faso frogs caught are sold to market-women who treat the frogs by emptying their bowels and frying in oil before selling them, this is not always the case for the Nigerian frog markets where frogs are sometimes smoked or dried without necessarily been fried, before consumption . This may pose a health risk for transmission of cryptosporidiosis from infected frogs.

Objective

To evaluate the occurrence of Cryptosporidium species in edible frogs (Ranaspp) sold at the Hanwa frog market Zaria, Kaduna State,Nigeria

Wholesome food in adequate quantities is essential to human beings for their existence. However, diseases spread due to contaminated food are a common problem throughout the world and an important cause of reduced economic productivity. Food borne illness can, therefore, be considered a major international health problem and a significant cause of economic loss. Approximately 10 to 20% of food-borne disease outbreaks cause due to contamination by the food handlers. In Sri Lanka, information about food hygiene practices in plantation sector is scarce. Therefore, this study was designed as a preliminary study to identify hygiene practices in food processing in the plantation sector for the establishment of a surveillance system in Sri Lanka.

Objective

To develop a food hygiene surveillance system to improve food safety measures within food establishments in the plantation sector of Sri Lanka