Breaking from the EU: One Health 2019 Zoonoses Report
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recently published findings in EFSA Journal that showed that the number of people getting sick and dying in foodborne outbreaks in Europe went up in 2019. These findings were based on figures from the annual report on zoonoses, a disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals. This report was generated as a response to the Zoonoses Directive 2003/99/EC1, which obliges EU Member States to collect relevant and, when applicable, comparable data on zoonoses, zoonotic agents, antimicrobial resistance, and foodborne outbreaks.
The numbers of confirmed human cases of 13 zoonoses are presented in this report, which increased from 2018. During 2019, 27 Member States reported a total of 5,175 foodborne outbreaks. Breaking it down, this included 49,463 illnesses, 3,859 hospitalizations, and 60 deaths. In total, there were 522 outbreaks, 2,454 cases, and 531 hospitalizations annually, taking an average of the past five years. Severity of the diseases was analyzed based on hospitalization and outcomes of the reported cases.