foodborne illnesses

For all those Americans crossing fingers that no communicable disease, influenza or foodborne illness outbreaks would happen during the government shutdown, exactly that has occurred. Read More »

As we Tuesday, the government shutdown is pushing the nation's food safety system to its limits. For instance, there is normally a team of eight people overseeing the critical foodborne illness tracking database . This team identifies clusters of sickness linked to potentially dangerous strains of pathogens such as E. coli or salmonella... Read More »

Two important, linked publications are out today, both carrying the same message: The way we raise poultry in this country is creating an under-appreciated health hazard, and the government structures we depend upon to detect that hazard and protect us from it are failing us. Read More »

With the growing need for early identification of emerging threats including those of bioterrorism, pandemic flu, Ebola and foodborne illnesses, public health departments nationwide are increasingly relying upon data captured from electronic sources. A $381,000, 2-year grant from the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health supports development by the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health of open source software tools to measure and monitor the quality of electronic data being transmitted to public health departments across the nation from health care systems, medical laboratories, physician offices and other sources.

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We’re 11 days now into the federal shutdown and four days since the announcement of a major foodborne outbreak in chicken that is challenging the shutdown-limited abilities of the food-safety and disease-detective personnel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture. Here’s an update. Read More »