Report from the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases Essay

Report from the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases - Essay Example in Painter, Hoekstra, Ayer, Taux, Braden, Angulo & Griffen, 2013). In the light of this finding, research into food safety assumes great significance. Dr. John Painter, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and his team, conducted a study on food commodities and food borne illnesses. The results of this study were published in the CDC journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases, under the title, Attibution of The research was performed in the United States using data from State and local health departments’ reports,  collated by the CDC through its Food borne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System.   These comprehensive reports include data on the  number of person’s ill, causes of the outbreak, description of the implicated food vehicle(s), lists of ingredients, and identification of the contaminated ingredient(s).  Outbreaks of food borne diseases from 1998 – 2008 were studied. The etiologic agent, or the food ingredient which causes the illness, was identified mainly through statistical evidence from epidemiologic investigation and laboratory evidence identifying the presence of the etiologic agent in the implicated food. Identification was strengthened by other supportive data, such as previous experience and the presence of the same etiologic subtype on the farm that supplied the implicated food. Painter et al. included in their study approximately 37% of the outbreaks from a total of 13,352 food borne disease outbreaks, causing 271,974 illnesses. These included outbreaks which featured implicated food vehicles and a single cause of illness. Foods were categorized into 1 of 17 commodities defined as aquatic animals (fish, crustaceans, and mollusks), land animals (dairy, eggs, beef, game, pork, and poultry), plants (grains-beans; oils-sugars [refined plant foods]; fruits-nuts; fungi; and leafy, root, sprout, and vine-stalk vegetables). Food vehicles were categorized as simple (containing