000357 Health Experts Report Fewer Food PoisoningsMarch 23, 2000Atlanta - Gastrointestinal illnesses caused by food contaminated with bacteria such as E. coli, Campylobacter and shigella have declined 19% since 1997, federal health experts said. An estimated 855,000 fewer Americans a year got sick from food-borne illnesses caused by bacteria, a 19% decrease in bacterial food-borne infections from 1997 to 1999, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Patricia Griffin of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases said the drop suggested that prevention programs were working. “There have been mandated changes in meat and poultry processing plants and industry has made a lot of those changes. There has also been increased attention to good agricultural practices on farms,” Griffin said. Sicknesses from Campylobacter, the most common bacterial cause of diarrhea illness in the United States, declined 19% between 1998 and 1999, and were down 26% from 1996. The bacteria is usually linked to raw or undercooked poultry. Illnesses from shigella declined 44% from 1996 to 1999, researchers said. Sicknesses from E. coli 0157:H7, usually caused by eating undercooked ground beef, decreased 22% during the same period. “The reported declines in Food-borne disease, particularly in Campylobacter and E. coli O157:H7, are encouraging and suggest that our prevention efforts are paying off,” said Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman in a statement. Despite the overall decline, the CDC said the number of people sickened by Salmonella increased between 1998 and 1999 after years of declines. Researchers blamed last year's increase on large outbreaks of Salmonellosis linked to unpasteurized orange juice, imported mangoes and raw sprouts. A separate CDC study of 2,700 outbreaks of Food-borne illness in the United States between 1993 and 1997 concluded that Salmonella Enteritidis, mostly caused by eating contaminated eggs, accounted for the largest number of outbreaks. The CDC said more recent data indicated that illnesses from Salmonella Enteritidis declined 7% between 1998 and 1999. The estimated changes in Food-borne sicknesses are based on data from a government surveillance network called FoodNet, which tracks laboratory- confirmed illnesses in areas covering about 9% of the nation's population. The CDC cautioned that the data released Thursday were preliminary and that the geographical areas covered by FoodNet were not a nationally representative sample. A study the agency released last year estimated that Food-borne diseases cause 76 million cases of gastrointestinal illness, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths per year.
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