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Novel application of the matched case–control design to compare food supply chains during an Escherichia coli O157 outbreak, United Kingdom, 2016

There is a need for innovative methods to investigate outbreaks of food-borne infection linked to produce with a complex distribution network. The investigation of a large outbreak of Escherichia coli O157 PT34 infection in the United Kingdom in 2016 indicated that catering venues associated with mu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Inns, Thomas, Cleary, Paul, Bundle, Nick, Foulkes, Sarah, Sharp, Ashley, Utsi, Lara, McBrien, Chris, Teagle, Rehman, Waldram, Alison, Williams, Chris, McCann, Cathy, Smith, Rob, Saleh, Sepeedeh, McCarthy, Noel, Vivancos, Roberto, Hawker, Jeremy, Decraene, Valerie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6053626/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29741154
http://dx.doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2018.23.18.17-00195
Descripción
Sumario:There is a need for innovative methods to investigate outbreaks of food-borne infection linked to produce with a complex distribution network. The investigation of a large outbreak of Escherichia coli O157 PT34 infection in the United Kingdom in 2016 indicated that catering venues associated with multiple cases had used salad leaves sourced from one supplier. Our aim was to investigate whether catering venues linked to cases were more likely to have used salad leaves from this supplier. We conducted a matched case–control study, with catering venues as the units of analysis. We compared venues linked to cases to those without known linked cases. We included 43 study pairs and obtained information on salad leaf products received by each venue. The odds of a case venue being supplied with salad leaves by Supplier A were 7.67 times (95% confidence interval: 2.30–25.53) those of control venues. This association provided statistical evidence to support the findings of the other epidemiological investigations undertaken for this outbreak. This is a novel approach which is labour-intensive but which addresses the challenge of investigating exposures to food across a complex distribution network.