Nominated by President Trump and confirmed in July, CDC Director Susan Monarez, Ph.D., was fired after scientific clashes with HHS Secretary Kennedy (RFK Jr.) and refusing to dismiss three veteran officials, who also departed CDC shortly after her termination was finalized.
Citing insufficient funding, CDC’s Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) program has reduced surveillance from eight important foodborne pathogens to just two—Salmonella and Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC).
A Trace One analysis of U.S. foodborne illness data reported to CDC reveals which states have the highest incidence of foodborne illness, which pathogens cause the greatest number of foodborne illnesses, and the months of the year in which foodborne illnesses are most common.
On July 29, the Senate confirmed Trump Nominee Susan Monarez, Ph.D. as the new director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is an immunologist and microbiologist, and the agency’s first non-physician Director in more than 70 years.
Through its annual mentorship program, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), with support from CDC, has awarded $356,000 to local health departments across the country to expand their wastewater monitoring efforts. Wastewater monitoring can be a useful tool for foodborne illness outbreak surveillance.
As of May 30, 45 people across 18 states have been infected, compared to 26 people across 15 states who had been infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella as of May 19.
Consumer purchase records were successfully used for hypothesis generation in the outbreak investigation and provided a critical foundation for traceback activities.
A limited number of state jurisdictions have completely adopted the most recent norovirus food safety provisions outlined in the FDA Food Code, according to an analysis conducted in 2020 by CDC researchers.
As promised by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at the end of March, thousands of layoffs at FDA and CDC have begun. A hazy picture of how those cuts are affecting food safety-related positions is beginning to emerge, and stakeholders and legislators are voicing their opposition.
This episode of Food Safety Five discusses newly published CDC data about the pathogens causing foodborne illness and contributing factors of outbreaks, as well as research by CDC, USDA, and FDA scientists exploring the use of AI analysis of whole genome sequencing data for foodborne illness source attribution.
