Infectious Connections: How Short-Term Foodborne Infections Can Lead to Long-Term Health Problems

This book can help you avoid one of the most common sources of illness today. Outbreaks from contaminated beef, peanuts, pistachios, spinach, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, and other common foods are striking with an alarming frequency. Every year one-quarter of our population is sickened by contaminated foods, with many hospitalizations and deaths. Factory farming, imported foods,weak federal regulations and few inspections provide oppotunites for new foodborne pathogens to emerge and for firmly established ones to become more virulent. These infectious microbes can move from the gastrointestinal tract into the bloodstream and can localize anywhere, such as in the lungs, genitourinary tract, soft tissues, central nervous system, joints, bones, or heart valves, where they inflict serious damage. Drawing from government documents, scientific journals, and medical reports, Beatrice Trum Hunter profiles more than a dozen major foodborne infections and their likely sources. She identifies signs and symptoms, people at high risk, and ways to prevent these infections. A safer food supply from farm to fork involves the entire food chain, from farmers, regulators and inspectors, to distriubtors, retailers, and all food preparers, including you.