Title: All over the map
Description: A nationwide report card grading the 50 states and the District of Columbia on how well they detect, investigate, and report outbreaks of foodborne illness finds great variability, indicating that many states are only reporting a small fraction of the number of outbreaks as states with better detection and reporting systems. Using 10 years of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Center for Science in the Public Interest's Outbreak Alert! database, CSPI assigned a letter grade and created an outbreak profile for each state. CSPI used two states that are widely recognized for having strong investigating and reporting systems as benchmarks. Those states, Oregon and Minnesota, have excellent laboratory facilities and public health departments that are quick to interview individuals who are suspected to have been outbreak 'cases.' They report nine and eight outbreaks per million people per year, respectively. Those two states, and five states that reported equally high reporting rates for outbreaks, received 'A's: Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Washington, and Wyoming. In contrast, 14 states reported only one outbreak of foodborne illness per million people: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia.
Subjects: Foodborne diseases, Public health
Places: United States