Readings
Related Amber Waves Articles
This page provides references to ERS publications and journal
articles:
Note: Several reports listed below refer to ERS's Foodborne
Illness Cost Calculator. ERS researchers are currently updating and
refining estimates of the costs of foodborne illness, along with
details on the assumptions behind the estimates, and will release
this information in an updated Foodborne Illness Cost
Calculator.
ERS reports
An Online Cost Calculator for Estimating the
Economic Cost of Illness Due to Shiga Toxin-Producing E.
coli (STEC) O157 Infections--Shiga toxin-producing E.
coli (STEC) O157 is a significant cause of foodborne illness
in the United States. ERS estimated the economic cost of illness
due to this pathogen--$405.2 million (in 2003 dollars)--using the
most recent estimate (1997) of the annual number of STEC O157 cases
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and medical
and cost data from the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance
Network (September 2007). The online Foodborne Illness Cost
Calculator is not available while ERS revises its cost-of-illness
estimates.
A Web-Based Tool for Calculating the Cost of
Foodborne Illness--The ERS Foodborne Illness Cost Calculator
can be used to estimate the economic cost of illness due to
Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) O157
infections (June 2006). The online Foodborne Illness Cost
Calculator is not available while ERS revises its cost-of-illness
estimates.
Valuing
the Health Benefits of Food Safety: A Proceedings--Federal
agencies use different methods to estimate the costs of illness, so
it is difficult to compare programs across agencies. In order to
begin developing a common approach, several agencies including ERS
organized a conference on valuing the health benefits of food
safety at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland in
September 2000 (April 2001).
Food Safety Efforts Accelerate in the 1990's --This report contains a table with the details
of the costs for five foodborne pathogens. The public health human
illness costs total $6.9 billion annually (September-December
2000).
Salmonella Cost Estimate Updated Using
FoodNet Data --The ERS estimate of the
economic cost of illness due to Salmonella infections was
updated using new data sources, including information from the
FoodNet Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (May-August
1999).
Estimated Annual Costs of
Campylobacter-Associated Guillain-Barré
Syndrome--Campylobacter appears to be an important
cause of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a rare form of temporary
paralysis. This report describes how ERS estimated the annual costs
of GBS due to foodborne Campylobacter infections (July
1997).
Bacterial Foodborne Disease: Medical Costs and
Productivity Losses--This report describes how ERS originally
estimated the costs of illness due to six bacterial pathogens,
using disease outcome trees and the available information about the
medical consequences of each type of infection (August 1996).
Journal articles
Economic Cost of Guillain-Barré Syndrome in the
United States--Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a rare but
serious form of temporary paralysis that is triggered by certain
infections, including foodborne illness due to Campylobacter
jejuni. ERS estimated the annual economic cost of illness due
to GBS from all causes to be $1.7 billion (in 2004 dollars), based
on data from a national hospital survey, a telephone survey of
adult GBS patients, and other sources. (See Frenzen, Paul.
"Economic Cost of Guillain-Barre Syndrome in the United States,"
Neurology, 71:14-20 March 2008).
Roberts, Tanya. "WTP Estimates of the Societal Costs of U.S.
Foodborne Illness," American Journal of Agricultural
Economics 89 (4):11838-8 (December 2007).
Frenzen, Paul D. "Hospital Admissions for Guillain-Barré
Syndrome in the United States, 1993-2004,"
Neuroepidemiology 29 (1):83-88. (November 2007).
Jones, Timothy F., Marcy B. McMillian, Elaine Scallan, Paul D.
Frenzen, Alicia B. Cronquist, Stepy Thomas, and Frederick J.
Angulo. "Population-Based Estimate of the Substantial Burden of
Diarrhoeal Disease in the United States FoodNet,
1996-2003," Epidemiology and Infection 135
(2):293-301 (February 2007).
Scallan, Elaine, Timothy Jones, Alicia Cronquist, Stepy Thomas,
Paul D. Frenzen, Dina Hoefer, Carlota Medus, Frederick Angulo, and
the FoodNet Working Group. "Factors Associated with Seeking Medical
Care and Submitting a Stool Sample in Estimating the Burden of
Foodborne Illness," Foodborne Pathogens and Disease
3(4):432-38 (December 2006).
Frenzen, Paul D., Alison Drake, Frederick J. Angulo, and the
FoodNet Working Group. "Economic Cost of Illness Due to Escherichia
coli O157 Infections in the United States," Journal of
Food Protection 68 (12):2623-30 (December 2005).
Economic Cost of Illness Due to Escherichia coli O157
Infections in the United States--This article describes the
updated ERS estimate of the economic cost of illness due to STEC
O157 (formerly called Escherichia coli O157) (August
2005).
Deaths due to Unknown Foodborne Agents--This
article describes ERS's review of the evidence on unknown
pathogenic agents in food, which have been estimated to cause 3,400
deaths per year in the United States (September 2004).
Frenzen, Paul D. "Mortality Due to Gastroenteritis of Unknown
Etiology in the United States." Journal of Infectious
Diseases 187:441-52 (February 2003).