The Incidence of Acute Gastrointestinal Illness in Canada, Foodbook Survey 2014-2015. (19th December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thomas, M. Kate; Murray, Regan; Nesbitt, Andrea; Pollari, Frank
• Other Names: Martinón-Torres Federico Academic Editor.
• Is Part Of: Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology =. Volume 2017(2017)
• Publication Date: 2017-12-19
• Subjects: Communicable diseases -- Periodicals; Infection -- Periodicals; Communicable diseases; Infection; Communicable Diseases; Communicable Disease Control; Electronic journals; Periodicals; Fulltext; Internet Resources; Periodicals; 616.9
• DOI: 10.1155/2017/5956148
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1712-9532

Abstract

Abstract : Acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) is an important public health issue, with many pathogen sources and modes of transmission. A one-year telephone survey was conducted in Canada (2014-2015) to estimate the incidence of self-reported AGI in the previous 28 days and to describe health care seeking behaviour, using a symptom-based case definition. Excluding cases with respiratory symptoms, it is estimated that there are 0.57 self-reported AGI episodes per person-year, almost 19.5 million episodes in Canada each year. The proportion of cases seeking medical care was nearly 9%, of which 17% reported being requested to submit a sample for laboratory testing, and 49% of those requested complied and provided a sample. Results can be used to inform burden of illness and source attribution studies and indicate that AGI continues to be an important public health issue in Canada.