The Issue that you selected is shown below. If you click on "Word Document File with Tracking," you will open a Word document version of the Issue. Because the document you will be opening is in Word format, you will need to use Word functions to save or print the Issue. When you view or use this Word version, the internal html functions will no longer work. Closing the screen will return you to the Start icon.
Issue Number: Council II 011
Title
Issue you would like the Conference to consider
To continue tracking the progress of prominent disease training program (an accessible foodborne illness prevention/response education opportunities, of any length, offered at the state or national level). currently developed, identify essential educational content of foodborne disease outbreak training programs; evaluate and rank identified courses for relevance and content; identify any gaps in foodborne disease outbreak training; consider if levels of foodborne disease outbreak training/retraining are needed.
Public Health Significance
Delays in reporting or investigating a possible foodborne disease outbreak can prolong an outbreak event, potentially resulting in further illness or economic disruption. Effective training of professionals in outbreak response can mitigate the effects of an outbreak.
Many states indicate utilizing some form of foodborne epidemiological education programs, but there is great variability in training offerings. Training programs in outbreak investigation should have some consistency and a minimal level of proficiency to ensure rapid response and communication, amongst investigating parties.
The mere existence of programs does not guarantee efficacy of the training. Accreditation or voluntary standards can provide a level of quality assurance and/or consistency amongst foodborne illness training programs to ensure that professionals are comfortably prepared to investigate outbreaks, institute proper control measures, and correspond appropriately amongst the many other parties and jurisdictions involved.
Recommended Solution: The Conference recommends...
- that the Interdisciplinary Foodborne Illness Training Committee be re-created ; and
- Report back to the 2014 Biennial Meeting of the Conference for Food Protection.