141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

286392
Foodborne diseases centers for outbreak response enhancement (FoodCORE) –year two of identifying and addressing gaps in state and local health departments response capacity

Monday, November 4, 2013 : 12:55 PM - 1:15 PM

Gwen Biggerstaff, MSPH , Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch/Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Jennifer R. Mitchell, MPH, CHES , Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch/Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Ian Williams, PhD, MS , Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch/Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
FoodCORE Team , Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch/Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, ID
Background: Each year foodborne diseases (FBD) cause illness in approximately 1 in 6 Americans, resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. Decreasing resources impact the ability of public health officials to identify, respond to, and control FBD outbreaks. FoodCORE addresses gaps in FBD outbreak response by improving capacity in three core areas: laboratory, epidemiologic, and environmental health activities. Methods: FoodCORE centers work collaboratively to develop and implement model practices for surveillance and rapid, coordinated, and standardized response to FBD outbreaks. These model practices are designed to be replicable for application in other jurisdictions. During Year Two (Y2), 10/1/11–12/31/12, FoodCORE continued to use performance metrics based on the Council for Improving Foodborne Outbreak Response Guidelines to document the completeness and timeliness of response activities. Results: The current FoodCORE centers are: Connecticut, New York City, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin. During Y2, FoodCORE laboratories received over 7,617 Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, and Listeria (SSL) isolates. Epidemiology staff followed up with over 98% of all reported SSL cases. 594 clusters of SSL illness were identified, a suspect vehicle was identified for 38% of STEC clusters and a confirmed vehicle for 17% of STEC clusters. Conclusions: FoodCORE promotes the evaluation and application of surveillance and investigation strategies to improve the detection, investigation, and control of FBD outbreaks. Identifying and addressing gaps in outbreak response can shorten the time it takes to identify a source of infection and pinpoint how and why contamination occurred to limit additional illnesses and prevent future outbreaks.

Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control

Learning Objectives:
Name the three core areas of foodborne disease outbreak response enhancement from FoodCORE. Describe the improved response capacity demonstrated by the FoodCORE performance metrics. Discuss the best practices and FoodCORE successes presented.

Keywords: Infrastructure, Food Safety

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an epidemiologist in the Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch at CDC . I have worked as a foodborne disease epidemiologist at the CDC since 2006 and have been involved in a helping to coordinate numerous multistate foodborne outbreak investigations. I coordinate the FoodCORE (Foodborne Diseases Centers for Outbreak Response Enhancement) program, providing technical, scientific, epidemiologic, and logistic support for program participants and partners.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.