Food-related illness and death in the United States (Reprinted from Emerging Infectious Diseases)

To better quantify the impact of foodborne diseases on health in the United States, we compiled and analyzed information from multiple surveillance sy stems and other sources. We estimate that foodborne diseases cause approxim ately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in t he United States each year, Known pathogens account for an estimated 14 mil lion illnesses, 60,000 hospitalizations, and 1,800 deaths. Three pathogens, Salmonella, Listeria, and Toxoplasma , are responsible for 1,500 deaths ea ch year, more than 75% of those caused by known pathogens, while unknown ag ents account for the remaining 62 million illnesses, 265,000 hospitalizatio ns, and 3,200 deaths. Overall, foodborne diseases appear to cause more illn esses but fewer deaths than previously estimated.