MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ms. Ellyn Marder MPH Surveillance Epidemiologist, CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, Georgia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: CDC’s Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) report provides the most up-to-date information about foodborne illnesses in the United States. Each year, FoodNet publishes a report that includes preliminary data compared with data from the previous three years. FoodNet has been monitoring illness trends since 1996 and collects data on about 15 percent of the U.S. population. Campylobacter and Salmonella caused the most reported bacterial foodborne illnesses in 2016, according to preliminary data. FoodNet sites alone reported 24,029 foodborne infections, 5,512 hospitalizations, and 98 deaths in 2016. The numbers of reported illnesses by germ are: Campylobacter (8,547), Salmonella (8,172), Shigella (2,913), Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (1,845), Cryptosporidium (1,816), Yersinia (302), Vibrio (252), Listeria (127) and Cyclospora (55). This is the first time the report also includes in the total number of infections those foodborne bacterial infections diagnosed only by rapid diagnostic tests in FoodNet sites. Previously, the report counted foodborne bacterial infections confirmed only by traditional culture-based methods in the total numbers. (more…)