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Targeting foodborne illness key in policymaking
Gkogka E. Emerg Infect Dis. 2011;doi:10.3201/eid1709.101766.
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Brucellosis, echinococcosis, salmonellosis and toxoplasmosis had the greatest effect on public health in Greece among foodborne illnesses of known etiology and altogether accounted for an estimated 4,600 illnesses per million inhabitants. Researchers suggest these findings may be useful for prioritizing food safety management to reduce the overall public health burden, according to new data published in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
“These diseases may be major targets for policymaking regarding appropriate food safety management actions, especially because their causative agents and likely transmission routes are generally known,” Elissavet Gkogka, of the Laboratory of Food Microbiology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, told Infectious Disease News.
Gkogka and colleagues assessed the public health burden of foodborne illnesses in Greece between 1996 and 2006. Surveillance data, hospital statistics and literature were pooled to determine the incidence and effect of different disease outcomes.
Researchers attributed contaminated food consumption in 369,305 illnesses per 1 million inhabitants. Of these illnesses, 905 were severe and three fatal — this correlated to 896 disability-adjusted life years per 1 million inhabitants.
Seventy-two percent of reported cases were ill-defined intestinal infections. This was followed by salmonellosis (8.2%), brucellosis (7.1%), food poisoning (4%) and echinococcosis (2.7%), according to the study. Brucellosis was the most serious foodborne illness and accounted for most deaths and approximately 55% of the estimated disability-adjusted life years. This was followed by ill-defined intestinal infections (27%), echinococcosis (7.8%) and salmonellosis (4.6%).
“The approach may be of interest to competent authorities in other countries requiring risk-based estimates ranking the impact of foodborne pathogens on public health to prioritize risk management actions,” Gkogka said. – by Ashley DeNyse
Disclosure: This research was funded by Unilever.
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