Archived
June, 2007 |
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Hispanic Health Program
PREVENTING FOOD-BOURNE DISEASES
AMONG PREGNANT HISPANIC WOMEN
WHAT IS THE PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM?
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Food-borne diseases
cause approximately 76 million illnesses,
325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths
in the United States each year. |
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High rates of
food-borne disease morbidity and mortality exist for pregnant
Hispanic women. |
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Common food
preferences among Hispanic families, such as the consumption of
unpasteurized milk products, creates a
higher risk for food-borne infections such as listeriosis, which can
cause septic abortions. |
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Educating Hispanic
women and their families about the prevention of food-borne diseases
is essential for healthy babies. |
WHAT HAS CDC
ACCOMPLISHED?
As the lead federal
agency for conducting food-borne disease surveillance, CDC monitors,
detects, and investigates, outbreaks of
food-borne illness when it occurs in the U.S. Study of this information
has uncovered high rates of food-borne illness
among Hispanics.
Examples of programs in action: |
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FoodNet is a network of nine
sites around the United States that monitors 36 million
persons, or 13% of the U.S. population. This network actively
monitors the major causes of food-borne
illness, conducts surveys for unreported food-borne illness, and studies
risk factors associated with illness. FoodNet
collects information which helps CDC to determine which Hispanics were
most at risk for
food-borne illnesses.
PulseNet, winner of the
Innovations in Government award, performs molecular fingerprinting of
bacterial food-borne pathogens, for prompt
recognition of food-borne outbreaks. Currently, public health
laboratories in 45 states have been
certified to participate in PulseNet and all 50 states have received
PulseNet training. |
WHAT ARE THE NEXT
STEPS?
CDC will
continue to use FoodNet to detect, investigate, and monitor emerging
food-borne pathogens, the diseases they cause, the factors influencing
their emergence, noting the particular ways these affect
Hispanic communities and responding to problems as they are identified.
In addition, CDC is developing “Futura Mama”, a model program to
decrease Listeria-associated septic abortions and other illness
associated with unpasteurized milk products among Hispanic women. This
will include the development of educational material for healthcare
providers about these risks; culturally appropriate ways to educate
their patients; and appropriate materials for Hispanic women of
childbearing age about food-borne disease risks.
Back to the Hispanic/Latino Populations Page
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