A One-Year Study of Foodborne Illnesses in the Municipality of Uppsala, Sweden

Abstract

Surveillance was enhanced and a retrospective interview study performed in 1998-99 to determine incidence, causes, and costs of foodborne illnesses in Uppsala, Sweden. Sixty-eight percent of the detected foodborne illness incidents were single cases, and 32% were outbreaks. Most (85%) of the incidents came to the attention of the municipal authorities through telephone calls from affected persons. Calicivirus, Campylobacter spp., and Staphyloccocus aureus were the most common etiological agents; meat, meat products, and mixed dishes were the most implicated food categories. The incidence of foodborne illness was estimated to be 38 cases per 1,000 inhabitants per year. The estimated average costs per illness were 2,164 Swedish Krona (SEK) ($246) to society and 500 SEK ($57) to the patient. The annual cost of foodborne illnesses in Sweden was estimated to be 1,082 million SEK ($123 million).

Etiology of Acute Gastroenteritis in Three Sentinel General Practices, Austria 2007

“…Schwaiger et al [23] tested 296 stool specimens sent to a laboratory in western Austria in 1998 and found EHEC to be the third most frequent bacterial cause of diarrhea, as did Allerberger et al [19] testing stool samples from 280 pediatric patients from the same catchment area in 1996. In a 1-year study of ''foodborne illnesses'' in Uppsala (Sweden), EHEC accounted for 8% of disease agents detected in feces (Campylobacter 24%, Salmonella 2%) [24]. In Italy, Colomba et al [15] found astrovirus in 5.4% of hospitalized children with diagnosed viral gastroenteritis, all in mixed infections with norovirus or norovirus plus rotavirus.…”

Antibacterial activity of lactic acid bacteria against spoilage and pathogenic bacteria isolated from the same meat small-scale facility

“…4. Discussion L. monocytogenes and S. aureus are Gram-positive pathogens that have been involved in outbreaks of food-borne disease in which meat represented the incriminated foodstuff (Lindqvist et al, 2001;Sim et al, 2002). These microorganisms adhere and form biofilms on numerous surfaces (Luppens, Reij, van der Heijden, Rombouts, & Abee, 2002;Mafu, Roy, Goulet, & Magny, 1990).…”

Microplate-Test for the Rapid Determination of Bacteriophage-Susceptibility of Campylobacter Isolates—Development and Validation

“…In most cases, the causative organisms are Campylobacter ( C. ) jejuni and C. coli , which are mainly transmitted by poultry meat [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. A reduction of intestinal colonisation of broilers would lead to a considerable decline of human campylobacteriosis [8].…”