Research on Foodborne Illness in the US

Answer

Research on Foodborne Illness in the US

Introduction

Foodborne disease has become a common health concern in the United States. In the contemporary United States, this illness is reported to have a yearly prevalence of approximately 9.4 million people. Consequently, over 1200 individuals succumb to this illness each year (Frias, 2012). Although studies have not categorized the prevalence of foodborne illness on the basis of income, race and ethnicity, it has been floated that this problem is more prevalent among low income earners. Overtime, there have been increased evidences showing that the illness is more common among minority groups in the US. Such high incidence of foodborne disease among low income earners and minority groups is estimated to result from poor levels of food services and improper retailing among others (Thorpe et al, 2013). Therefore, this paper explores foodborne illness (E. coli) as an epidemiological problem among the population in the United States.

Disease Background

By definition, foodborne illness is a disease that infects an individual as a result of drinking or eating contaminated food that. Amazingly, this illness has been found to be linked with over two hundred pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, toxins and parasites (Young & Waddell, 2016). Some of the common bacteria causing foodborne illness include E. coli, Vibrio spp, Shigella spp, Listeria Monocytognes and Yersinia spp. Parasites causing foodborne disease include Entamoeba histolytica, Toxoplasma caris, Giardia lamblia, Trichinella aspiralis, and Cyclospora spp among others. Toxins that cause foodborne include Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringes and Straphylococcus aureas (Ebel et al., 2016).

Symptoms of foodborne illness include vomiting and bloody diarrhea which can persist for up to seven days. Other symptoms include fever, backaches, nausea, fatigue and cramps. Noteworthy, what is commonly referred to as stomach flu can sometimes be a serious symptom of foodborne disease. Foodborne illness has an incubation period of not more than seven days. Studies have shown that raw foods including animal products such as raw eggs, raw meat and unpasteurized milk are good candidates for E.coli. Furthermore, vegetables and fruits are also prone to get contaminated when washed with dirty water or during preparation. Moreover, this illness can be spread when a healthy individual consumes raw foods that have been touched by an infected person (Painter et al, 2013). In effect, this disease has become an epidemiological problem in the United States.

 Reports and studies on E.coli such as those done by the Centre of Disease Control (CDC) indicate that the disease is prevalent and has caused many cases of hospitalization and deaths in the US (Painter et al, 2013). The tables below provide the incidence of foodborne illness acquired both domestically and through other transmission routes. 

Table 1: Source. (Frias, 2012)

Table 2: Source. (Frias, 2012)

Apart from E. coli, there are other pathogens which cause foodborne illness leading to its high incidence in the US. Some of the major pathogens causing this illness domestically include Salmonella, Norovirus, Clostridium perfringes, Campylobacter spp, and streptococcus aureas (Painter et al, 2013). Tables below show estimated number sickness as caused by individual pathogens in the US.

Table 1: Source. (Frias, 2012)

Table 2: Source (Frias, 2012)

Review of Current Surveillance

A number of foodborne illness cases in the US are still going unreported. However, the disease is reported to be more prevalent among minor groups such the poor in the United States (Henao et al, 2015). One thing that has greatly hindered investigation on the outbreak of foodborne disease in the US is absence of traceable contaminated foods. Surveillance is an appropriate and organized collection of data concerning epidemiological problem within a definite population. This process is done differently to various countries and depends on resource availability such as manpower, technical experts, infrastructure as well as the economic status of the country.

The major surveillance methods used in the United States include the FoodNet and the routinely national surveillance which uses several illustrations (Young & Waddell, 2016).  Based on the surveillance, the US authorities have taken measures to prevent and reduce the occurrence of foodborne illness. Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) is a system that is used in the United State to investigate food related diseases (Young & Waddell, 2016). It involves ten state health departments working liaison with FDA, CDC and USDA. This surveillance covers 15% of the US total population. It conducts an investigation on prevalence foodborne disease caused by parasites and pathogens in a defined range of population. Furthermore, it carries out studies and analyses aimed at helping the health official comprehend the foodborne illness epidemiological problem in the US (Young & Waddell, 2016). This Surveillance is very professional and scientific and produces information on a regular basis through CDC publications.

 The surveillance in the US is majorly conducted by a group of different medical practitioners such as physicians, researchers and statisticians among others. This process involves data collection, analysis of collected data and finally, reporting. Dealing particularly with foodborne disease, costs of this disease is calculated using the centre of disease control model alongside cost-of-illness models. These methods involve cost of treatment, cost of functional disabilities, cost of pain and economic cost that accrue as a result of death (Painter et al, 2013). In United States, surveillance on foodborne illness caused by E. coli indicated that the approximate costs for every case depended on levels of disease severity. Particular to California, when six bacteria and one parasite were used, the cost of foodborne disease was estimated to be $ 34 million (Thorpe et al, 2013). Currently, the situation is reported to have reduced due to improved hygiene in restaurants.

Descriptive Epidemiological Analysis of the Disease

According to FoodNet reports published by CDC, it evident that foodborne disease is more prevalent among minors and poor people in the US. Some of the categories of people most affected by this disease include pregnant mothers, children, older adults and people with weak immune systems (Henao et al, 2015). Firstly, changes which occur in the body of a woman during pregnancy have the effect of lowering their immune system hence, making them susceptible to illnesses which are foodborne. The category of people whose immune systems have been weakened out using drugs and medication have also been pointed out to form a large percentage of those suffering for foodborne diseases in the Unites States. Likewise, since immune systems of children are not fully developed, they fall sick and even succumb to foodborne diseases. Finally, elderly people are also rapidly taken ill due to foodborne infections because their immune system weakens over the years (Thorpe et al, 2013). Since the US population is largely composed of women, children and the elderly, it is unequivocal that foodborne disease affects a significant percentage of this category of population.

Foodborne illness is preventable as has been done in the United States. The population that has helped to plan for the prevention of this disease includes a hygienic population with operative authorities and one that is organized. In the US, the population is composed of regulatory bodies such as the local authorities, Health Protection agency, national Public Health Service and Food Standard Agency the play very important roles in helping to plan for the prevention of the outbreak of foodborne disease in the United States (Painter et al, 2013). Moreover, the country works in collaboration with international health bodies such as Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to help in planning ways to reduce and prevent the outbreak of foodborne illness.

Review of Disease Diagnosis

Diagnosis of foodborne illness is a process that is accomplished through a number of steps. These steps involve laboratory examination, physical evaluation as well as careful assessment of the patient’s history (Frias, 2012). Interpreting the history involves inquiring about the time of exposure, drink or food taken, other individuals present, specific signs and symptoms such diarrhea, fever, nausea and cramping among others. Moreover, physical evaluation involves assessing key signs such as testing stool (must be less than six hours old) for blood presence, orthostatic measurements, mental status and skin turgor among others. For the disease diagnosis to be successful, the clinician must have adequate knowledge for interpreting the assays developed in the lab. Specific samples are used; three different samples are used in the lab to provide adequate samples. When running an assay for toxins, special circumstances usually arise dictating one to run a special assay. When testing high risk group of pathogens such as Salmonella or carrying out diagnosis on immune-comprised individual, blood cultures are used (Thorpe et al, 2013). Through this process, the disease is detected and appropriately treated.

 One technique used to screen foodborne diseases is known as pathogen-specific surveillance. This screening method involves specific syndromes which are clinical whether or not it is coupled with laboratory confirmation. Interviews are done to collect information regarding disease exposure. Data is then collected to help in this process (Young & Waddell, 2016). The merits of this screening method include detection of widespread of disease which are associated with common agent. It also helps to detect specific syndrome information related to specific exposure to the foodborne disease, is relatively less expensive and has high predictive values. On the other hand, this method is only effective when screening disease by routine testing, thus limited to public health agency reporting. Moreover, it involves many steps and thus a slow method of screening foodborne disease (Painter et al, 2013). This is the method mostly adopted by the US.

Plan for Addressing Foodborne Disease

Foodborne illnesses are very rampant and hence, every practitioner needs to have a plan for amicably addressing its outbreak. My plan to address the problem of foodborne illness involves doing research, detecting illnesses, preventing disease outbreak, developing relevant policies and responding to threats for the outbreak of the disease (Henao et al, 2015). When doing research, I plan to assess the natural history and biology of causative agents of foodborne illness which are emerging such as prions and Cyclospora. To be able to inform the integration of health and animal health surveillance, I plan to evaluate the ecology of diseases which are foodborne. Also, I will elucidate the role of water in causing foodborne illness through applying methods that produce real-time results on evaluating foodborne diseases that are a threat to the health of the population. When developing policies, I will develop interdisciplinary programs for healthcare. Additionally, I will conduct trainings and education to create awareness on food safety both to health officials and the general public. In my endeavor to mitigate the epidemiological problem caused by forborne illnesses, I will integrate networks for laboratory to enhance diagnosis of foodborne diseases (Thorpe et al, 2013). Lastly, I plan to promote effective communication and relationship among all medical discipline, scientific fields, all private and public sectors as well as all geographical levels. 

To detect and prevent this problem, I plan to use techniques which are validated to solve the prevalence of foodborne disease and also reporting both actual and potential problems to the relevant authorities. Moreover, with the understanding that it is almost impossible to realize zero risks, I plan to manage risks to the bearable levels. As such, I will adopt both domestic and global strategies to ensure that food supply is monitored and protected (Ebel et al, 2016).  Noteworthy, I always promise myself to become very pragmatic when implementing my plans to manage an outbreak of foodborne diseases.

Conclusion

Foodborne disease has become a common health concern in the United States. In the contemporary United States, this illness is reported to have a yearly prevalence of approximately nine million four hundred thousand people. By definition, foodborne illness is a disease that infects an individual as a result of drinking or eating contaminated food. Foodborne illnesses are caused by pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, toxins and parasites. The major surveillance methods used in the United States include the FoodNet and the routinely national surveillance which uses several illustrations. Indeed, foodborne illnesses are very rampant and hence, every practitioner needs to have a plan for amicably addressing its outbreak