Reports of illness about certain foods result in a foodborne outbreak. When a multistate foodborne outbreak is detected, the CDC conducts quick investigations to determine its source, which enables them to take actions and control measures to prevent more people from falling sick. A foodborne disease investigation undergoes various steps that facilitate prevention of foodborne disease. The first step entails detecting a possible outbreak through public health surveillance and reports of illness. For instance, complaints surveillances by consumers are used in detecting localized foodborne disease outbreaks.
Epidemiologists then define and find cases through disease surveillance to describe the burden of disease, magnitudes, and trends. After defining cases, epidemiologists generate hypotheses concerning the likely sources. At this stage, they offer possible explanations on the occurrence of the disease, mode of transmission, the affected individuals, and determine the cause of the disease through the available information. Investigators interview individuals affected with the disease through a hypothesis-generating questionnaire to collect standard information about food and other exposures. Data analysis is then conducted to pinpoint the source of the illness and test the hypothesis through techniques such as the epi curve.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The next step involves solving-point for the contamination and the food source. The health officials rely on three different data, which are used to link the illness to contaminated food as well as solve the outbreak. These include traceback, epidemiologic as well as food and environmental testing. The health officials examine these types of data together while attempting to find the likely source of the foodborne outbreak. Once the source of the outbreak has been identified, the outbreak control measures are taken. For instance, case-control studies are conducted to ensure that the controls have been chosen from the same population. Public health surveillance also allows health officials to choose control measures based on the information offered to them.
