Several senators have written letters to U.S. Health Secretary Kennedy urging Cyclospora surveillance to be restored to the FoodNet program. Experts say that FoodNet cuts, although problematic, did not cause the current outbreak.
In a letter, Senator Amy Klobuchar urged CDC and FDA to fully restore food safety programs that have been affected under the Trump Administration and continue supporting state public health agencies with the resources needed to detect, investigate, and respond to foodborne illness outbreaks.
Per CDC, 843 domestically acquired cyclosporiasis cases have been confirmed in 31 states, plus another 1,500 pending analysis. Michigan alone has reported more than 2,600 cases and is looking at lettuce as a potential vehicle of illness.
Information collected during a foodborne illness outbreak investigation can be used to inform and improve future investigations and prevention activities
An aim of FDA's Coordinated Outbreak Response, Evaluation, and Emergency Preparedness Office (CORE+EP) is to share the findings of foodborne illness outbreak investigations, highlighting relevant topics such as the importance of global partnerships in farm investigations and the benefits of historical environmental surveillance for future outbreak investigations.
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).
According to recent research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), infections caused by Salmonella with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) only to clinically important antibiotics were not associated with poorer outcomes, suggesting that factors other than treatment failure may be important.
A new report on preliminary 2022 data from the U.S. Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) finds that enteric infections in the U.S. caused by eight major foodborne pathogens have generally returned to or exceeded levels observed in 2016–2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Based on Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) data, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report states that the incidence of commonly foodborne enteric infections decreased in the U.S. during 2021.