New foodborne illness guide

FDA Consumer, July-August, 2004

Americans' vulnerability to foodborne illness has been highlighted by large outbreaks in recent years. To increase awareness, an updated educational guide for health care professionals on how to identify, treat, and prevent foodborne illnesses, as well as consumer tips for patients, has been prepared by a group of professional associations and government agencies.

The free easy-to-read guide, Diagnosis and Management of Foodborne Illnesses: A Primer for Physicians and Other Health Care Professionals, is a revision of a publication originally done in 2001. The updated version contains five new sections on new and re-emerging foodborne illnesses, as well as charts, scenarios, and a continuing medical education section.

After microbes that produce illness are swallowed, they pass through the stomach into the intestine, attach to the cells lining the intestinal walls, and begin to multiply. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some types of microbes stay in the intestine, some produce a toxin that is absorbed into the bloodstream, and some can directly invade the deeper body tissues. The symptoms produced, including diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and nausea, depend greatly on the type of microbe. It is rarely possible to say which microbe is likely to be causing a given illness unless laboratory tests are done to identify the microbe, or unless the illness is part of a recognized outbreak.

"Recent concerns about hepatitis A and norovirus outbreaks have emphasized the need for health professionals to be vigilant for foodborne pathogens, and this need is further emphasized by concerns about intentional contamination of food," says David Acheson, M.D., director of the Food Safety and Security Staff at the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

More than 75 percent of foodborne illness deaths are caused by just three pathogens: salmonella, listeria, and toxoplasma. Greater understanding of foodborne illnesses by nurses and other front-line health care providers is also important for early detection. Collaborators on the primer include the American Medical Association (AMA), American Nurses Association-American Nurses Foundation, the CDC, the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Health care professionals can request a free copy of the primer by visiting the AMA Web site at www.ama-assn.org/ go/foodborne. Consumer tips on food safety also are available at this site.