The rate of a severe form of Escherichia coli diarrhea significantly decreased in 2009, reaching the lowest level since 2004, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The incidence of the disease, called Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) O157 infection, also met the national 2010 Healthy People target in 2009. Infection with E. coli O157 is of particular concern because in 5 percent to 10 percent of cases the infection causes kidney failure and it can be especially dangerous for children and the elderly.
The data were collected through CDC’s Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, known as FoodNet, the most complete and up-to-date source of information about trends in foodborne illnesses in the United States. FoodNet conducts active surveillance for nine pathogens commonly transmitted through food, and leads studies designed to help health officials better understand how foodborne diseases are impacting Americans. Annual data are compared with data from the previous three years and with data from the first years of surveillance (1996-1998) to analyze trends and measure progress.
While the 2009 rates of most of the nine illnesses that are tracked through FoodNet sustained the declines seen since FoodNet began in 1996, most have shown little change since 2004.
"The interventions begun in the late 1990s were successful in decreasing some of these foodborne diseases, but we haven’t seen much recent progress,” said Chris Braden, MD, acting director of CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases. “To make additional strides against these diseases and ultimately better protect the American people from foodborne illness, CDC, our federal and state partners, and the food industry will need to try new strategies."
"Today’s report confirms our past success combating foodborne illness by setting an aggressive goal, designing an effective system to meet that goal, and relentlessly implementing it; it’s time to do it again," said David Goldman, MD, MPH, assistant administrator in the Office of Public Health Science of the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Following the 1993 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7, the government declared O157 an adulterant, implemented Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) production systems to prevent food contamination, established FoodNet and PulseNet, and set a goal of cutting O157 illnesses in half by 2010.
