It’s easy to take for granted that the food we eat and the water we drink is safe and healthy. Several recent high-profile outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, however, are a reminder of how critical food safety is.

CDC estimates that nearly 48 million Americans contract a foodborne illness each year. Of those, 128,000 people are hospitalized annually, and 3,000 people die. So, who is tasked with keeping our food and water safe? And what happens when a foodborne outbreak does occur? In this episode, we hear from a food epidemiologist with Minnesota’s department of public health about how foodborne outbreaks are investigated and a personal story from someone who got sick from a foodborne illness. Join us!

For more information and full episode transcripts, visit cdcfoundation.org/conversations.

Episode Quotes

“It's really a team sport, solving these outbreaks. And if you take out any piece of that team, you're not going to get to the answer.”

- —Joshua Rounds, MPH, senior epidemiologist in Minnesota Department of Health Foodborne Diseases Unit

“I was incredibly impressed with the level of care and the systems that were in place to obviously solve the mystery, beginning with the hospital who made the report and the sending off my samples and so forth. I didn't realize that was happening behind the scenes.”

- —Cindy Ligon, artist

Episode Credits

Claire Stinson: Host

Maya Kroth: Producer

David Snyder: Editor

Emily Bucherati: Graphics and web design

Erin Norvell: Social media

Katie Johnstone: Social media

Thanks to Our Guests

Joshua Rounds, MPH, senior epidemiologist in Minnesota Department of Health Foodborne Diseases Unit

Cindy Ligon, artist

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Your first day at any new job is always a little stressful. But for Julia Petras, the day she started working at CDC was especially high stakes.

In this episode of Contagious Conversations, we explore a mysterious outbreak that affected four patients in four months, sickened by a bacteria not seen before in North America. The FBI—and the public—wanted answers. We hear from CDC’s Julia Petras, Dr. Jennifer McQuiston and Dr. Eric Pevzner about how the outbreak was solved by disease detectives in the Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Episode Quotes

“There is no replacement for shoe-leather epidemiology. You can have all of your advanced biostatistics, your sophisticated software, but it doesn't replace the importance of talking to real people, to being physically there, doing some of that boots-on-the-ground detective work. There is no replacement for that.”

— Julia Petras, Regional Epidemiologist, Global Influenza Branch, CDC

“As a disease detective, you get to go and figure out how can you help protect people so that you can give people the opportunity to have healthy lives? And there's nothing more rewarding than getting to do that than as a disease detective at CDC.”

— Dr. Eric Pevzner, CAPT, U.S. Public Health Service; Chief, Epidemiology and Laboratory Workforce Branch, Epidemic Intelligence Service, CDC

“I remember I came in on a weekend to pick up some papers from my office and she and her EIS supervisor were holed up in a conference room with a big whiteboard, and they were trying to connect the dots and figure out where to go next and what questions needed to be answered, and they were always trying to pursue getting an answer for that case. And so the tenacity that was required to solve it was really impressive.”

— Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, Principal Deputy Director, Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, CDC

To watch the original 1979 interview with Dr. Alexander Langmuir featured in this podcast, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NICfQM9d0CM

For more information and full episode transcripts, go to Contagious Conversations.

Have you ever asked yourself what routine auto repairs can teach us about how we think of our investment in public health? Listen in on our latest Contagious Conversations podcast as host Claire Stinson uncovers the answers and details how quick action quashed a recent outbreak of an illness long considered to be eliminated in the United States.

In this episode, “The Costs of Getting Sick,” we explore the overlap between public health and the health of our economy with guests Dr. Dan Filardo of CDC, Dr. Michael Osterholm of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and Dr. Alexander Sloboda of the Chicago Department of Public Health. Join us!

Episode Quotes

“Obviously, the rash, the fever, cough, red, itchy eyes, runny nose are the symptoms commonly you get with measles, but it can also be very dangerous, and it can be deadly sometimes.”

— Dr. Alexander Sloboda, Medical Director of Immunization and Emergency Preparedness Programs, Chicago Department of Public Health

“Because this case was in a large congregate setting, we were really in communication with Chicago right off the bat, anticipating that there might be an outbreak.”

— Dr. Dan Filardo, a medical officer with CDC’s measles team

“You have outbreaks in schools with these vaccine-preventable diseases, you interrupt education substantially. Now, what's the cost of that? What does that mean? What happens when kids fall behind? What happens when the teachers can't teach? And, unfortunately, we don't have a lot of these things qualified or quantified in terms of what they really mean, economically.”

— Dr. Michael Osterholm, author and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy

Thanks to Our Guests

Dr. Dan Filardo, a medical officer with the measles team at CDC

Dr. Alexander Sloboda of the Chicago Department of Public Health

Dr. Michael Osterholm, author and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy

For more information and full episode transcripts, go to Contagious Conversations.