The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention typically coordinates 17 to 36 foodborne illness investigations each week involving multiple states.
The reports are published weekly but do not include information such as where the outbreak occurred, what foods were involved or how many cases were identified.
To identify an outbreak, two or more people must be infected with the same pathogen strain. This can be done by whole genome sequencing of samples collected from patients. Another way to identify outbreaks is to link people to a single source of a pathogen.
This week, government agencies are working on 21 outbreaks.
The pathogens involved in the outbreak are:
Campylobacter outbreaks occurred twice.
E. coli outbreaks occurred four times.
Four Listeria outbreaks occurred. and
There were 11 cases of Salmonella.
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News,click here)
