A Comparison of Non-Infectious Foodborne Exposures Reported to Two National Reporting Systems, United States, 20002010

A Comparison of Non-Infectious Foodborne Exposures Reported to Two National Reporting Systems, United States, 2000–2010Abstract Number:2589 Ethel Taylor*, Royal Law, Amie Nisler, and Lorraine Backer Ethel Taylor* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States, E-mail Address: [email protected] , Royal Law Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States, E-mail Address: [email protected] , Amie Nisler Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States, E-mail Address: [email protected] , and Lorraine Backer Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States, E-mail Address: [email protected] AbstractBackground: In the United States, national surveillance for foodborne disease outbreaks is conducted by the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS), which relies on voluntary reporting by state and local health departments. While most reported outbreaks result from infectious agents, non-infectious toxins and toxicants can also contaminate food products and cause adverse health effects including severe illness and death. U.S. poison centers (PCs) receive non-infectious foodborne exposure calls from healthcare providers and the public. To determine the usefulness of PC data for passive surveillance for non-infectious foodborne outbreaks, we compared non-infectious foodborne exposure calls received by PCs to outbreaks reported to FDOSS.Methods: We reviewed exposure calls captured by PCs in the National Poison Data System (NPDS) from 2000–2010 and outbreaks captured by FDOSS with reported exposure to scombroid, ciguatera, or 8 other toxins. We matched NPDS exposure calls to outbreaks reported in FDOSS on etiology, state, and call date or date of first reported illness to identify events captured in both systems. We compared proportions of etiologies in each system and conducted descriptive analyses of both outbreaks and exposure calls.Results: In all, 192 (26%) outbreaks with 838 illnesses were reported to FDOSS and spatially and temporally matched to 737 (8%) exposure calls in NPDS. Eighty-eight percent of outbreak-associated illnesses in FDOSS had an associated exposure call in NPDS. Scombroid toxin and ciguatera toxin accounted for 374 (51%) and 239 (32%) of NPDS calls, respectively. Scombroid toxin and ciguatera toxin also accounted for an estimated 460 (55%) and 306 (37%) outbreak-associated illnesses reported to FDOSS. Similar results were found for four additional etiologies.Conclusions: Based on the analyses of data captured in NPDS and FDOSS, NPDS may be a useful tool to track trends in certain toxic foodborne exposures.