Response Guidelines Published for Foodborne Disease Outbreaks

ATLANTA—The Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) has released its Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response. The guidelines are targeted to local, state and federal agencies and provide model practices used in foodborne disease outbreaks, including planning, detection, investigation, control and prevention. Because local and state agencies vary in their approach to, experience with and capacity to respond to foodborne disease outbreaks, the guidelines are intended to give all agencies a common foundation from which to work and to provide examples of the key activities that should occur during the response to outbreaks of foodborne disease. The guidelines were developed by a broad range of contributors from local, state and federal agencies with expertise in epidemiology, environmental health, laboratory science and communications. The document has gone through a public review and comment process.
"It is our hope that this document will be useful to investigators at all levels in improving outbreak investigations and serve as a platform for developing local and agency-specific policies and additional tools to support these critical public health activities," said Dr. Tim Jones, Tennessee State Epidemiologist and Co-Chair of CIFOR.
The Guidelines document is not intended to replace current procedure manuals for responding to outbreaks. Instead, it is designed to be used as a reference document for comparison with existing procedures; to fill in gaps and update site-specific procedures; to provide models for new procedures where they do not exist; and to provide training to program staff. The document also includes a foreword by Dr. Michael Osterholm of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and Michael Taylor, senior advisor to the FDA Commissioner.
CIFOR is a multidisciplinary partnership organized to increase collaboration among food safety officials at all levels of government and in all areas of the country with the ultimate goal of reducing the burden of foodborne illness in the United States.