New report charts problems with Salmonella outbreak response
New report charts problems with Salmonella outbreak response
WASHINGTON -- Tomato business owners may feel vindicated when they read a new report documenting the flaws in the federal government's response to this summer's Salmonella saintpaul outbreak.
The 32-page report, Breakdown: Lessons to Be Learned from the 2008 Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak, represents an in-depth review of missteps and miscommunication that may have extended the outbreak that caused illnesses in more than 1,400 people nationwide.
Penned by the Produce Safety Project, an initiative of the Pew Chartable Trusts, the report raises questions about how timely and effectively data were shared among public health agencies and if they contributed to a delayed identification of Jalape?o and Serrano peppers as a vehicle for Salmonella Saintpaul.
"If we pass up this opportunity to learn from this most recent outbreak, we will keep repeating the same costly mistakes," Jim O'Hara, director of the Produce Safety Project and a former official with the Department of Health & Human Services, said in a Nov. 17 statement with the release of the report.
The report recommends that the FDA use its authority to issue mandatory and enforceable safety standards for fresh produce and not wait for Congress to act. It also calls for organizational reforms throughout the public health system for a more coordinated outbreak response.
Finally, the report stated that government agencies need a unified risk communication plan before an outbreak to coordinate the public health messages from various agencies. For example, the announcement of the Salmonella saintpaul outbreak involved five different agencies during a four- day period - all of which released slightly different facts.
Mr. O'Hara faulted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention for changing the way it presented outbreak data numerous times in the middle of the outbreak. The initial map of the outbreak states was misleading, said Mr. O'Hara, adding that the early maps were not helpful to industry leaders, who were not able to lend expertise on distribution patterns.
Three weeks into the communication effort, CDC significantly changed - with no explanation - the manner in which it presented outbreak data, from raw number of cases in a state to cases per million in a state to a range of cases per state, according to the report.
By limiting the post-mortem analysis to traceback problems, more fundamental structural shortcomings risk being neglected, said the report.
"The Obama administration should make the establishment of mandatory, enforceable safety standards for fresh produce a food-safety priority and take steps to fix our broken outbreak response system," Mr. O'Hara said in the statement. "Both actions will go a long way toward safeguarding public health and protecting farmers."
The 32-page report, Breakdown: Lessons to Be Learned from the 2008 Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak, represents an in-depth review of missteps and miscommunication that may have extended the outbreak that caused illnesses in more than 1,400 people nationwide.
Penned by the Produce Safety Project, an initiative of the Pew Chartable Trusts, the report raises questions about how timely and effectively data were shared among public health agencies and if they contributed to a delayed identification of Jalape?o and Serrano peppers as a vehicle for Salmonella Saintpaul.
"If we pass up this opportunity to learn from this most recent outbreak, we will keep repeating the same costly mistakes," Jim O'Hara, director of the Produce Safety Project and a former official with the Department of Health & Human Services, said in a Nov. 17 statement with the release of the report.
The report recommends that the FDA use its authority to issue mandatory and enforceable safety standards for fresh produce and not wait for Congress to act. It also calls for organizational reforms throughout the public health system for a more coordinated outbreak response.
Finally, the report stated that government agencies need a unified risk communication plan before an outbreak to coordinate the public health messages from various agencies. For example, the announcement of the Salmonella saintpaul outbreak involved five different agencies during a four- day period - all of which released slightly different facts.
Mr. O'Hara faulted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention for changing the way it presented outbreak data numerous times in the middle of the outbreak. The initial map of the outbreak states was misleading, said Mr. O'Hara, adding that the early maps were not helpful to industry leaders, who were not able to lend expertise on distribution patterns.
Three weeks into the communication effort, CDC significantly changed - with no explanation - the manner in which it presented outbreak data, from raw number of cases in a state to cases per million in a state to a range of cases per state, according to the report.
By limiting the post-mortem analysis to traceback problems, more fundamental structural shortcomings risk being neglected, said the report.
"The Obama administration should make the establishment of mandatory, enforceable safety standards for fresh produce a food-safety priority and take steps to fix our broken outbreak response system," Mr. O'Hara said in the statement. "Both actions will go a long way toward safeguarding public health and protecting farmers."
