Speaker Abstract: S-08
Lessons for Food Security from the Hepatitis A outbreak of 2003
David W. K. Acheson, M.D., Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition/FDA
FDA's response to deliberate contamination of the food supply would be similar to current response to natural contamination. The recent hepatitis outbreak is an example of how such a system would work and serves as a good example of the challenges faced during a deliberate food contamination event. In the fall of 2003 there were four clusters of hepatitis A in four different states linked to the consumption of green onions. Overall this was the largest outbreak of hepatitis A ever identified in the United States. The four clusters of cases were in Tennessee (65 cases), Georgia (11 cases), Pennsylvania (544 cases), and North Carolina (16 cases). The first cases began to emerge in September and were traced back to food consumption in August the last cases emerged in early December. The cases were traced back to food consumption at a variety of different restaurants and case control studies indicated that consumption of green onions was the likely source of exposure. While hepatitis A is not considered to be high on the list of select agents that are likely to be used by someone wishing to deliberately contaminate the United States food supply this recent multi-state outbreak illustrates many of the important actions that would surround a deliberate food contamination event. These important actions can be summarized as follows: 1) Identification of the outbreak in the first place; 2) Early and detailed communication between local, state and federal agencies responsible for public health and food safety and security; 3) Identification (and quantitation) of the agent in the food; 4) Identification of the source of the implicated food (s); 5) Communication with the appropriate private sector stakeholders; 6) Traceback to the source; 7) Recognition that it is a deliberate contamination event; 8) Dissemination of appropriate information to the public; 9) Containment of the implicated product; 10) Recovery from the event. During the course of the recent hepatitis A outbreak many of these actions were undertaken in order to safeguard public health and serve as a reminder of how we should operate in the context of a deliberate contamination event.
2004 FDA Science Forum | FDA Chapter, Sigma Xi | CFSAN | FDA
Last updated on 2004-MAY-28 by frf