We ranked seven foodborne pathogens in Denmark on the basis of their health and economic impact on society in 2019. We estimated burden of disease of infections with Campylobacter spp., Salmonella spp., Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), Yersinia enterocolitica, Listeria monocytogenes, norovirus, and hepatitis A virus in terms of incidence, mortality, disability-adjusted life years (DALY), and economic burden in terms of direct and indirect health costs. These seven pathogens accounted for 268,372 cases, 98 deaths, and 3121 DALYs, and led to a total expenditure of 434 million Euro in 1 year in a country with 5.8 million citizens. Foodborne infections by Campylobacter, Salmonella, and norovirus caused the most DALYs, whereas Campylobacter, and norovirus and STEC had the higher costs. A combination of disease burden and cost of illness estimates is useful to inform policymaking and establish food safety priorities at the national level.
The findings come from the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring Systems (NARMS) 2019 Integrated Summary, which combines data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The report provides a snapshot of resistance patterns found in bacteria isolated from humans, animals, raw meats from retail outlets (chicken, ground turkey, ground beef, and pork chops), and meat and poultry product samples collected at slaughtering facilities.
In addition to Salmonella, which causes an estimated 1.35 million illnesses and 26,500 hospitalizations each year, the NARMS report also includes resistance data on Campylobacter (1.5 million illnesses and 19,500 hospitalizations), Escherichia coli, and Enterococcus. NARMS monitors these bacteria to detect emerging resistance patterns to the antibiotics that are most important to human medicine, multidrug resistance, and specific resistance genes.
FoodWorld 