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Hispanic Health Program

PREVENTING FOOD-BOURNE DISEASES
AMONG PREGNANT HISPANIC WOMEN

WHAT IS THE PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM?

	Food-borne diseases cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year.
	High rates of food-borne disease morbidity and mortality exist for pregnant Hispanic women.
	Common food preferences among Hispanic families, such as the consumption of unpasteurized milk products, creates a higher risk for food-borne infections such as listeriosis, which can cause septic abortions.
	Educating Hispanic women and their families about the prevention of food-borne diseases is essential for healthy babies.

WHAT HAS CDC ACCOMPLISHED?

As the lead federal agency for conducting food-borne disease surveillance, CDC monitors, detects, and investigates, outbreaks of food-borne illness when it occurs in the U.S. Study of this information has uncovered high rates of food-borne illness among Hispanics.

Examples of programs in action:

FoodNet is a network of nine sites around the United States that monitors 36 million persons, or 13% of the U.S. population. This network actively monitors the major causes of food-borne illness, conducts surveys for unreported food-borne illness, and studies risk factors associated with illness. FoodNet collects information which helps CDC to determine which Hispanics were most at risk for food-borne illnesses.

PulseNet, winner of the Innovations in Government award, performs molecular fingerprinting of bacterial food-borne pathogens, for prompt recognition of food-borne outbreaks. Currently, public health laboratories in 45 states have been certified to participate in PulseNet and all 50 states have received
PulseNet training.

WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?

CDC will continue to use FoodNet to detect, investigate, and monitor emerging food-borne pathogens, the diseases they cause, the factors influencing their emergence, noting the particular ways these affect
Hispanic communities and responding to problems as they are identified.

In addition, CDC is developing “Futura Mama”, a model program to decrease Listeria-associated septic abortions and other illness associated with unpasteurized milk products among Hispanic women. This will include the development of educational material for healthcare providers about these risks; culturally appropriate ways to educate their patients; and appropriate materials for Hispanic women of childbearing age about food-borne disease risks.

Produced by CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID)

For more information, contact the National Center for Infectious Diseases, Mailstop C14, 1600 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30333: (404) 371-5236: http://www.cdc.gov/ncid/.

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	Hispanic Health Program Section Menu
		ATSDR Hispanic Health Program
		Assessing Hispanic Health: Data Activities
		Bioterrorism
		Border Infectious Disease Surveillance
		CDC en Español
		Capacity Building
		Communicating Workplace Safety & Health in Spanish
		Dengue/Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever
		Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS)
		Folic Acid Knowledge & Use Among Hispanic Women
		Hispanic-Serving Health Professions Schools (HSHPS)
		Immigrant/ Hispanic Agricultural Worker Safety & Health
		Minority AIDS Initiative
		National Diabetes Prevention & Control Program
		Preventing Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancies Among Hispanic Women
		Preventing Food-Borne Diseases Among Pregnant Hispanic Women
		Protecting the Safety & Health of Immigrant Workers
		Public Health Prevention Service (PHPS)
		Reducing Tobacco-Related Disparities
		Urban Research Centers
		Viral Hepatitis Prevention

Last Updated on November 03, 2004
Office of Minority Health

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