Overview of CDC food safety activities and programs
CaliciNet is an electronic system developed to rapidly "fingerprint" strains of Calicivirus that may cause foodborne outbreaks. When fully implemented, this system will allow participating health department laboratories to directly input information from strains identified in their laboratories and receive immediate notification if a match is detected. This system will help public health officials more quickly identify contaminated food products associated with outbreaks.
Clean Hands Coalition (CHC) is a unified alliance of public and private partners working together to create and support coordinated, sustained initiatives to significantly improve health and save lives through clean hands. Visit the Coalition at www.cleanhandscoalition.org or CDC's Clean Hands website at www.cdc.gov/clean hands to learn how you can support National Clean Hands Week each September.
Diagnosis and Management of Foodborne Illnesses - Declaring that foodborne illness is a serious public health problem, CDC collaborated with the American Medical Association,
the American Nurses Association, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the USDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service (FSIS) to create Diagnosis and Management of Foodborne Illnesses: A Primer for
Health Care Providers
. The CME was developed to
help health professionals
recognize, diagnose,
treat and report
foodborne illness.
DPDx is a web site developed and maintained by CDC's Division of Parasitic Diseases. The goal of DPDx is to use the Internet to strengthen diagnosis of parasitic diseases both in the United States and abroad. The interactive and rapid exchange of information permitted by the Internet, allied with already available diagnostic reference resources, will enhance CDC's capacity to address the global problem of parasitic diseases.
EdNet - The National Food Safety Educator's Network is an electronic newsletter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), providing updates on food safety activities to educators and others concerned about food safety.
EFORS - The Electronic Foodborne Outbreak Reporting System is CDC's new internet-based system designed for state health departments to report foodborne disease outbreaks.
EHS-Net is a network of environmental health specialists and epidemiologists created to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas about environmental causes of foodborne illness. This project is a collaborative effort of CDC's Environmental Health Services Branch, FoodNet, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Fight BAC!® is a national education campaign developed by the Partnership for Food Safety Education - a unique public/private partnership of federal agencies, industry associations and consumer organizations. The purpose of the Partnership and the Fight BAC!® campaign is to reduce the incidence of foodborne illnesses by educating American consumers about safe food handling practices.
Foodborne Outbreak Response and Surveillance Unit - A foodborne outbreak is an indication that something needs to be improved in our food safety system. Public health scientists investigate outbreaks to control them and to learn how similar outbreaks can be prevented in the future. CDC's Foodborne Outbreak Response and Surveillance Unit provides outbreak reports and publications, an investigation toolkit, and reporting forms.
FoodNet - The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network provides a network for responding to new and emerging foodborne diseases of national importance, monitoring the burden of foodborne diseases, and identifying the sources of specific foodborne diseases. FoodNet is a collaborative project among CDC, nine state health departments, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) , and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Food Safe Schools Action Guide - is a multifaceted implementation tool comprised of a variety of products specially designed to help school staff in their efforts to make their school food-safe. The Food-Safe Schools Action Guide can help schools identify gaps in food safety and develop an action plan for becoming food-safe.
Get SMART on the Farm - is an educational program that promotes appropriate use of antimicrobial agents in animals. The five primary activities are of Get SMART on the Farm are to:
- Distribute current practices and educational materials
- Fund sites and provide technical assistance to develop, implement, and evaluate local campaigns
- Support development and testing of veterinary medical curricula for students
- Fund a national advertising campaign promoting the appropriate use of antibiotics
- Develop an efficient and accurate means of measuring antimicrobial use in veterinary medicine and agriculture
Healthy Schools, Healthy People – It's a SNAP - is a national recognition program developed by CDC and The Soap and Detergent Association that encourages students to create school-wide programs promoting the role of handwashing and staying healthy. A free starter kit is available online at www.itsasnap.org or can be requested by emailing SNAP@cleaning101.com .
LITS is CDC's Public Health Laboratory Information Tracking and Reporting System. It is an easy-to-use, laboratory data management data system that runs on a local area network. It offers modularity, flexibility, expandability and facilitates consistent laboratory practices. LITS provides a mechanism to enter, edit, analyze and report laboratory test results.
NARMS - The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System is a collaborative project between CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to monitor antimicrobial resistance in humans and animals.
National Clean Hands Week - is an awareness event sponsored by the Clean Hands Coalition. Learn how you can help promote the role of appropriate hand hygiene in staying healthy by visiting www.cleanhandscoaltion.org . National Clean Hands Week is observed during the third week of September.
NCFSS - The National Coalition for Food Safe Schools is a network of national organizations, associations, and government agencies that have direct or indirect involvement or interest in reducing foodborne illness in the U.S. by improving food safety in schools. NLTN - The National Library Training Network provides laboratory training courses in clinical, environmental, and public health laboratory topics. The NLTN is your laboratory training resource; seven regional offices are available to identify training needs, deliver courses, and assess NLTN training programs.
Ounce of Prevention - is an educational program that provides information on easy, low-cost steps to help stop many infectious diseases before they happen. The program focuses on handwashing, cleaning, food safety, immunizations, antibiotic use, and animal contact.
PHLIS - The National Salmonella Surveillance System and the National Shigella Surveillance System collect reports of isolates of Salmonella and Shigella from human sources from every state in the United States. State Public Health Laboratory Directors and State and Territorial Epidemiologists report this information to CDC through the Public Health Laboratory Information System (PHLIS).
PHTN - CDC's Public Health Training Network is a distance learning system that takes training to the learner. PHTN uses a variety of instructional media ranging from print-based to videotape and multimedia to meet the training needs of the public health workforce nationwide.
PulseNet is a national network of public health laboratories that performs DNA "fingerprinting" on bacteria that may be foodborne. The network permits rapid comparison of these "fingerprint" patterns through an electronic database at CDC. The DNA "fingerprinting" method is called pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE).
SODA - The Salmonella Outbreak Detection Algorithm is a statistical algorithm designed to detect unusual clusters of isolates of Salmonella infection. SODA compares current Salmonella isolates reported through Public Health Laboratory Information System (PHLIS) by serotype to a 5-year historical baseline for that serotype and week to detect unusual increases from the baseline. Analyses can be conducted at state, regional, or national levels. Since 1996, SODA has been implemented at CDC and selected state health departments. If you would like more information on SODA, please call the PHLIS Helpdesk (404) 639-3365.
WHO Global Salm-Serv is a global network of laboratories and individuals involved in Salmonella surveillance, serotyping and antimicrobial testing. This is a collaborative project of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Danish Veterninary Laboratory, and the WHO National Collaborating Center for Foodborne Disease Surveillance at CDC.
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