Tag: borne

Government Fails at Food Safety

  • The reported number of salmonella cases has not gone down since 1996 (Source: Gene.Arboit at Wikimedia Commons)

Government agencies admit they need to do a better job at keeping food safe. Kyle Norris has more:

Transcript

Government agencies admit they need to do a better job at keeping food safe. Kyle Norris has more:

When you discover people are getting sick from a food bourne illness like salmonella, you want to stop others from getting sick from it as fast as possible.

A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Food & Drug Administration, and the Department of Agriculture finds the government is not getting any faster.

The report found the number of reported salmonella cases each year is about 15 people in 100,000. That has not gone down since 1996.

Lola Russell is a spokeswoman for the CDC.

“We are planning to increase the capacity of state health departments so that outbreaks can be better detected and investigated.”

Russell says the CDC will work to get more “boots on the ground” to detect an outbreak. The report also indicated the FDA is looking at the best options to prevent food borne illnesses in the first place.

For The Environment Report, I’m Kyle Norris.

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New Mosquito Borne Virus Headed This Way?

Experts in infectious diseases believe it might only be a matter of time before a new mosquito-borne virus arrives in the U.S. This one could be more devastating than West Nile. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:

Transcript

Experts in infectious diseases believe it may only be a matter of time
before a new mosquito-borne virus arrives in the U.S. This one could
be more devastating than West Nile. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Tracy Samilton reports:


Rift Valley fever used to be confined to sub-Saharan Africa, but in
2000, there were outbreaks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Sonja Gerrard is
an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan. She says there’s no
reason Rift Valley fever couldn’t show up here. The disease is
transmitted by mosquitoes, just like West Nile; but unlike West Nile,
many different species of mosquitoes can carry it.


“Most people that get the disease will recover but it does in certain
instances cause encephalitis, which in cases of hemorrhagic fever can
lead to death”


Gerrard says the most devastating effect of Rift Valley fever is on
livestock. Up to 30% of a flock of sheep or cattle can be killed
during outbreaks. Because it’s considered likely the disease will
reach the U.S. sooner or later, she says research on developing a
vaccine should begin now. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m
Tracy Samilton.

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