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Foodborne agents cause an estimated 76 million illnesses annually in the United States (1). 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 territories. This report summarizes epidemiologie data for the 1,097 reported outbreaks occurring during 2007 (the most recent finalized data), which resulted in 21,244 cases of foodborne illness and 18 deaths. Among the 497 foodborne outbreaks with a laboratory-confirmed single etiologic agent reported, norovirus was the most common cause, followed by Salmonella. Among the 18 reported deaths, 1 1 were attributed to bacterial etiologies (five Salmonella, three Listeria monocy to genes, two Escherichia coli O157:H7, and one Clostridium botulinum), two to viral etiologies (norovirus), and one to a chemical (mushroom toxin). Four deaths occurred in outbreaks with unknown etiologies. Among the 235 outbreaks attributed to a single food commodity, poultry (17%), beef (16%), and leafy vegetables (14%) were most often the cause of illness. Public health, regulatory, and agricultural professionals can use this information when creating targeted control strategies and to support efforts to promote safe food preparation practices among food employees and the public.
A foodborne disease outbreak is defined as the occurrence of two or more similar illnesses resulting from ingestion of a common food. State, local, and territorial health departments use a standard, Internet-based form to voluntarily submit reports of foodborne outbreaks to the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System, and a toolkit for investigation and reporting of outbreaks is used to guide reporting officials.*
This report includes outbreaks occurring in 2007 and reported to CDC by May 3, 2010. Population-based rates of reported outbreaks were calculated for each state using U.S. Census estimates of the 2007 state populations. ' Reported outbreak data include the number of illnesses, hospítalízations, and deaths associated with each outbreak; the etiologic agent, either confirmed or suspected^; and the implicated food vehicle. CDC classifies implicated foods into the following 17 food commodities: finfish, crustaceans, mollusks, dairy, eggs, beef, game, pork, poultry, grains-beans, oils-sugars, fruits-nuts, fungi, leafy vegetables, root vegetables, sprouts, and vegetables from a vine or stalk (2). Outbreaks in...