Foodborne Disease
Course #98623 - $60 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
Foodborne diseases are associated with significant morbidity and mortality and high financial costs. Each year, approximately 48 million cases of foodborne disease occur in the United States, resulting in more than 56,000 hospitalizations and 1,350 deaths annually. The estimated economic burden is $6 billion each year through healthcare costs and lost productivity. Education campaigns and patient education strategies will be discussed in order to support efforts to prevent foodborne illness. In addition, the reporting process for foodborne illnesses will be described.
- INTRODUCTION
- OVERVIEW OF FOODBORNE DISEASE
- INFECTIOUS FOODBORNE DISEASE
- NONINFECTIOUS FOODBORNE DISEASE
- DIAGNOSIS AND MANAGEMENT OF FOODBORNE DISEASE
- BACTERIAL FOODBORNE PATHOGENS
- VIRAL FOODBORNE PATHOGENS
- FOODBORNE PARASITES
- NATURAL TOXINS
- PREVENTION OF FOODBORNE DISEASE
- CONCLUSION
- RESOURCES
- Works Cited
- Evidence-Based Practice Recommendations Citations
This course is designed for physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurses seeking to enhance their knowledge of foodborne disease. The course is of particular importance for clinicians in the primary care and emergency settings.
Physicians and other healthcare practitioners are integral to the prevention, identification, and treatment of foodborne diseases, and also play an important role in the control of foodborne disease outbreaks. The purpose of this course is to provide healthcare professionals with the information necessary to rapidly and effectively diagnose, manage, report, and prevent foodborne diseases, in the interest of individual patient care and protection of the public at large.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- List the bacterial and viral pathogens most often responsible for food-related illness in the United States.
- Identify the subset of the populations most at risk for a foodborne disease.
- Discuss the food sources of infectious and non- infectious pathogens.
- Outline key steps in the diagnosis of foodborne disease, including patient history, differential diagnosis, microbiologic testing, and considerations for non-English-proficient patients.
- Describe the general management principles and reporting requirements for cases of foodborne disease.
- Discuss the epidemiology, presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of foodborne bacterial infection.
- Identify viral foodborne pathogens, including associated diagnosis and treatment.
- Compare and contrast foodborne parasitic disease found in the United States.
- Describe marine toxins by source and the respective syndromes associated with food-related illness.
- List the symptoms and disease course of mushroom poisonings.
- Describe strategies to help individuals prevent foodborne disease.
Lori L. Alexander, MTPW, ELS, MWC, is President of Editorial Rx, Inc., which provides medical writing and editing services on a wide variety of clinical topics and in a range of media. A medical writer and editor for more than 30 years, Ms. Alexander has written for both professional and lay audiences, with a focus on continuing education materials, medical meeting coverage, and educational resources for patients. She is the Editor Emeritus of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) Journal, the peer-review journal representing the largest association of medical communicators in the United States. Ms. Alexander earned a Master’s degree in technical and professional writing, with a concentration in medical writing, at Northeastern University, Boston. She has also earned certification as a life sciences editor and as a medical writer.
John M. Leonard, MD, Professor of Medicine Emeritus, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, completed his post-graduate clinical training at the Yale and Vanderbilt University Medical Centers before joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 1974. He is a clinician-educator and for many years served as director of residency training and student educational programs for the Vanderbilt University Department of Medicine. Over a career span of 40 years, Dr. Leonard conducted an active practice of general internal medicine and an inpatient consulting practice of infectious diseases.
Contributing faculty, Lori L. Alexander, MTPW, ELS, MWC, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Contributing faculty, John M. Leonard, MD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
John V. Jurica, MD, MPH
Jane C. Norman, RN, MSN, CNE, PhD
The division planners have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.