 |
Disease Reporting
Foodborne Disease Outbreaks
On this page
A foodborne disease (FBD) outbreak is defined as the occurrence of two or more cases of the same clinical illness among people from different households resulting from the ingestion of the same food or meal.
Reporting regulations
Physicians are required by law to report suspected FBD outbreaks by telephone, any time, day or night, to their local health department or to the after-hours on-call Oregon Health Services (OHS) epidemiologist (503/731-4030) immediately upon identification. Local health department staff or OHS epidemiologists will start investigating all suspected FBD outbreaks as soon as they are reported.
Oregon Health Services' Outbreak investigation resources
- Compendium of Acute Foodborne Diseases
provides information about FBD agents organized by incubation period, hallmark symptoms and the presence of fever (PDF 286K)
- FoodNet
- Investigative Guidelines for local health departments (PDF 71K, 10/03)
- Foodborne Outbreak Summary form
This form is usually completed by the OHS epidemiologist who is assigned to work with LHD staff on the FBD outbreak investigation (PDF 126K)
- All outbreak summary forms
- Questionnaire template: A basic outbreak questionnaire template (in MS-Word) is available from ACDP. The template is frequently modified. The template is not difficult to use, but requires a bit of orientation and hand-holding the first few times, as well as an understanding of how data will be entered and analyzed. Ask ACDP staff (971-673-1111) for a copy of the current template and they will help walk you through the process.
- Outbreak investigation protocol and evaluation tool
- Environmental Health on-site Evaluation Guidelines
This form is used by environmental health specialists participating in foodborne disease outbreak investigations
- Quick Reference Guide
to the services of the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory (OSPHL). The Quick Reference Guide is arranged alphabetically by organism, and provides information about the types of tests available at the OSPHL, specimen requirements, request forms, fees and turn-around times. Scroll down to "Food Outbreak" for information about testing food and clinical specimens for FBD agents. Remember to call the OHS epidemiologist assigned to work on the investigation before submitting food or clinical specimens to OSPHL (PDF 81K)
- Meat Testing (for O157 cases) (PDF 68K)
- Instructions for collection of stool specimens for viral isolation and PCR (PDF 48K)
- Virology/Immunology Request (Form 42) (PDF 19K)
- Bacteriology/Parasitology Request (Form 75) (PDF 56K)
- Mycobacteriology Request (Form 71-73) (PDF 84K)
Investigation resources for FBD associated with facilities
(supermarkets, convenience store delis and soup/salad bars)
- Instructions for use of intake form for complaints of FBD associated with facilities licensed by the DHS Food and Dairy Division (FDD) (PDF 151K)
- Interagency agreement between the Food and Diary Division and the Oregon Health Services for investigation of food-borne illness (PDF 181K)
- Foodborne Disease Investigation Report for FDD Regulated Facilities (PDF 201K)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other links
Return to top
|
|
