National Studies as a Component of the World Health Organization Initiative to Estimate the Global and Regional Burden of Foodborne Disease
December
National Studies as a Component of the World Health Organization Initiative to Estimate the Global and Regional Burden of Foodborne Disease
Robin J. Lake 0 1
Brecht Devleesschauwer 0 1
George Nasinyama 0 1
Arie H. Havelaar 0 1
Tanja Kuchenmüller 0 1
Juanita A. Haagsma 0 1
Helen H. Jensen 0 1
Nasreen Jessani 0 1
Charline Maertens de Noordhout 0 1
Frederick J. Angulo 0 1
John E. Ehiri 0 1
Lindita Molla 0 1
Friday Agaba 0 1
Suchunya Aungkulanon 0 1
Yuko Kumagai 0 1
Niko Speybroeck 0 1
0 1 Institute of Environmental Science and Research , Christchurch , New Zealand , 2 Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University , Merelbeke , Belgium , 3 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium, 4 Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Public Health, Université catholique de Louvain , 1200 Brussels , Belgium , 5 Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, United States of America, 6 Makerere University , Kampala , Uganda , 7 Division of Information, Evidence, Research and Innovation, WHO Regional Office for Europe , Copenhagen , Denmark , 8 Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Center , Rotterdam , Netherlands , 9 Iowa State University, Ames, United States of America, 10 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, United States of America, 11 Division of Global Health Protection, Center for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, United States of America, 12 Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, United States of America, 13 Institute of Public Health, Health & Environment Department, Food Safety & Nutrition Section, Tirana, Albania, 14 National Drug Authority, Ministry of Health , Kampala , Uganda , 15 International Health Policy Program, Ministry of Public Health , Bangkok , Thailand , 16 Department of Veterinary Medical Science, Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo , Tokyo , Japan
1 Editor: Daniela Flavia Hozbor, Universidad Nacional de la Plata , ARGENTINA
Data Availability Statement; All relevant data are within the paper
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OPEN ACCESS
Funding: This study was commissioned and paid for
by the World Health Organization (WHO). Copyright
in the original work on which this article is based
belongs to WHO. The authors have been given
permission to publish this article. The funders had no
role in study design, data collection and analysis,
decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript,
apart from Tanja Kuchenmuller who is an employee
Background
The World Health Organization (WHO) initiative to estimate the global burden of foodborne
diseases established the Foodborne Diseases Burden Epidemiology Reference Group
(FERG) in 2007. In addition to global and regional estimates, the initiative sought to promote
actions at a national level. This involved capacity building through national foodborne
disease burden studies, and encouragement of the use of burden information in setting
evidence-informed policies. To address these objectives a FERG Country Studies Task Force
was established and has developed a suite of tools and resources to facilitate national
burden of foodborne disease studies. This paper describes the process and lessons learned
during the conduct of pilot country studies under the WHO FERG initiative.
Findings
Pilot country studies were initiated in Albania, Japan and Thailand in 2011 and in Uganda in 2012. A brief description of each study is provided. The major scientific issue is a lack of
of WHO and participated in the country studies
described in the article, and the writing.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared
that no competing interests exist.
data, particularly in relation to disease etiology, and attribution of disease burden to
foodborne transmission. Situation analysis, knowledge translation, and risk communication to
achieve evidence-informed policies require specialist expertise and resources.
Conclusions
Introduction
The FERG global and regional burden estimates will greatly enhance the ability of individual countries to fill data gaps and generate national estimates to support efforts to reduce the burden of foodborne disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) initiative to estimate the global and regional burden
of foodborne diseases has four stated objectives, two of which involve actions at a national level
[
1
]:
To strengthen the capacity of countries in conducting burden of foodborne disease
assessments and to increase the number of countries that have undertaken a burden of foodborne
disease study.
To encourage countries to use burden of foodborne disease estimates for cost-effective
analyses of prevention, intervention and control measures.
As part of the initiative, the Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group
(FERG) was established in 2007 to provide advice and guid (...truncated)