07/24/26 Public Health Education Topic: Foodborne/Waterborne Outbreaks
- Health Department
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Per CDC
How Foodborne Outbreaks Happen
What to know
Contamination of food can happen at any point along the food production chain.
This contamination can lead to foodborne illness and outbreaks.
People in the food production chain and at home can take steps to keep food safe, like inspecting food and cooking food thoroughly.
What you can do
Although contamination can occur at any point during the food production chain, the people involved at each point work to reduce this risk.
People can take actions like:
Cooking food thoroughly,
Inspecting food at several points in the production chain,
Storing food at safe temperatures,
Washing hands, and
Keeping food preparation areas clean.
Detecting/Investigating Waterborne Diseases and Outbreaks
Waterborne disease outbreak definition
For an event to be defined as a waterborne disease outbreak
Two or more people must be linked epidemiologically by time, location of exposure to water, and type of illness, and
This epidemiologic evidence must implicate water as the probable source of illness.
Environmental evidence implicating water as the source of infection (for example, water samples testing positive for germs) can strengthen evidence in a public health investigation, but the investigation must find an epidemiologic link between the illnesses and water for an event to be considered a waterborne disease outbreak.
Investigating outbreaks
Public health officials investigate outbreaks to control them, to prevent additional illnesses, and to learn how to prevent similar outbreaks from happening. Anyone who suspects an outbreak is occurring should contact their local or state health department.
The 8 steps in an outbreak investigation are:
DETECT a possible outbreak
DEFINE and FIND cases
GENERATE hypotheses
TEST hypotheses using epidemiology, clinical data, and environmental investigation
IDENTIFY source of outbreak
CONTROL outbreak through remediation and outreach
DECIDE outbreak is over
PREVENT future outbreaks through summarizing, interpreting, and reporting findings
Several steps may happen at the same time in an outbreak investigation. Once a waterborne disease outbreak investigation ends, public health departments report outbreaks to WBDOSS.
To learn more please visit:
About Waterborne Disease Surveillance | Waterborne Disease and Outbreak Surveillance Reporting | CDC
