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• Foodborne Illness

  The CDC estimates that 76 million foodborne illness, or food poisoning, cases occur in the United States every year, which means that one in four Americans contracts a foodborne illness annually after eating foods contaminated with such pathogens as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Hepatitis A, Campylobacter, Shigella, Norovirus, and Listeria.

  • Enterobacter sakazakii Food Poisoning

    Enterobacter sakazakii is an uncommon, but often fatal, invasive pathogen that causes bloodstream and central nervous system infections.  The gram-negative, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium is from the family Enterobacteriaceae – the same family that E. coli O157:H7 belongs to.

    While E. sakazakii has caused disease in all age groups, it is likely that immunocompromised or medically debilitated infants are more susceptible to infections with E. sakazakii.  One contributing factor in infant cases could be that the stomach…

  • Clostridium Botulinum (Botulism) Food Poisoning

    Botulism is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.  Clostridium botulinum is the name of a group of bacteria commonly found in soil.  The bacteria are anaerobic, gram-positive, spore-forming rods that produce a potent neurotoxin.  These rod-shaped organisms grow best in low oxygen conditions.  The bacteria form spores that allow them to survive in a dormant state until exposed to conditions that can support their growth.  The organism and its…

  • Shigella Food Poisoning

    Shigella is a bacterium that can cause sudden and severe diarrhea (gastroenteritis) in humans. Shigellosis is the name of the disease that Shigella causes. The illness is also known as “bacillary dysentery.” Shigella bacteria can infect the intestinal tract after the ingestion of relatively few organisms. This is why shigellosis is one of the most communicable of the bacterial-induced diarrheas.

    Shigella bacteria are found in the excrement (feces) of infected individuals, and cause illness when ingested.  Infectious material…

  • Salmonella Food Poisoning

    Salmonella is one of the most common enteric (intestinal) infections in the United States. Salmonellosis – the disease caused by Salmonella – is the second most common bacterial foodborne illness after Campylobacter infection. It is estimated that 1.4 million cases of salmonellosis occur each year in the U.S.; 95 percent of those cases are related to foodborne causes.

    Approximately 220 of each 1000 cases result in hospitalization and eight of every 1000 cases result in death. About 500 to 1,000 deaths - 31 percent of all food-related…

  • Norovirus Food Poisoning

    Noroviruses (formerly called Norwalk virus or Norwalk-like viruses) are estimated to cause 23 million cases of acute gastroenteritis (commonly called the “stomach flu” or the “24-hour flu”) in the U.S. each year, and are the leading cause of gastroenteritis. Of viruses, only the common cold is reported more often than viral gastroenteritis (norovirus).

    Noroviruses may cause more outbreaks of foodborne illness than all bacteria and parasites. They can cause extended outbreaks because of their high infectivity, persistence in the…

  • Listeria Food Poisoning

    Listeria monocytogenes (Listeria) is a foodborne illness-causing bacteria; the illness caused by ingestion of Listeria bacteria is called listeriosis. Listeria can invade the body through a normal and intact gastrointestinal tract. Once in the body, Listeria can travel through the blood stream but the bacteria are often found inside cells. Listeria also produces toxins that damage cells.

    Listeria invades and grows best in the central nervous system among immune-compromised persons, causing meningitis and/or encephalitis (brain infection).…

  • Campylobacter Food Poisoning

    Campylobacter is the most common cause of bacterial foodborne illness in the United States. Over 3,000 cases were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2003, or 12.6 cases for each 100,000 persons in the population. Many more cases go undiagnosed and unreported, with estimates as high as 2 to 4 million cases per year. It is estimated that each case costs $920 on average due to medical and productivity (lost wages) expenses with an annual total cost of approximately $1 billion (CAST, 1994).

    Chicken is the most…

  • Hepatitis A Food Poisoning

    Hepatitis A is one of five human hepatitis viruses (hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E) that primarily infect the liver and cause illness. An estimated 80,000 cases occur each year in the U.S., although much higher estimates have been proposed based on mathematical modeling of the past incidence of infection. Each year, an estimated 100 persons die as a result of acute liver failure in the U.S. due to hepatitis A, but the rate of infection has dramatically decreased since the hepatitis A vaccine was licensed and became available in the U.S. in 1995. …

  • E. coli Food Poisoning

    E. coli O157:H7 is the source of an estimated 73,000 illnesses, 2,000 hospitalizations, and 60 deaths in the United States every year.  The bacterium was first identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1975, but was not conclusively determined to be a cause of enteric disease until 1982, following outbreaks of foodborne illness that involved several cases of bloody diarrhea.  At that time, E. coli O157:H7 was firmly associated with hemorrhagic colitis.  The majority of infections are thought to be food-related,…

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