This month’s “Morbidity and Mortality Week Report” published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outlined how changes in culture-independent diagnostic tests (CIDTs) for foodborne illnesses aid physicians in identifying infections, but may be limited in monitoring and preventing diseases. FoodNet, an organization made up of the CDC, 10 state health departments, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, and the FDA, recorded 20,107 infections, 4,531 hospitalizations and 77 foodborne-related deaths in 2015. The nine main pathogens identified included salmonella, campylobacter, shigella and STEC. FoodNet also obtained 3,112 positive CIDT reports in 2015; compared to reports from 2012 to 2014, there were increases of 92% of reports for campylobacter, 284% for shigella, 247% for salmonella and 120% for STEC. The Report indicated five limitations: using CIDTs in clinical labs may impact the number of infections reported; certain CIDTs may report false positives; access to health services may vary based on specific populations; illnesses from nonfoodborne pathogens differ in proportion; and yearly changes in incidences may not accurately reflect long-term trends. For disease monitoring and prevention, the CDC advises clinical labs to work with public health labs to ensure cultures are done for patients with positive CIDT reports, as well as expedite R&D for finding methods to sequence genomes of stool samples to identify factors such as genetic subtypes and resistance profiles.

Source: CDC