Volume 11, Number 1—January 2005
Research
Capacity of State and Territorial Health Agencies to Prevent Foodborne Illness
Richard E. Hoffman*
, Jesse Greenblatt†, Bela T. Matyas‡, Donald J. Sharp§, Emilio Esteban¶, Knachelle Hodge*, and Arthur Liang§
, Jesse Greenblatt†, Bela T. Matyas‡, Donald J. Sharp§, Emilio Esteban¶, Knachelle Hodge*, and Arthur Liang§Table 3
Staffing in epidemiology programs for foodborne disease surveillance and investigation
| Question | n | % yes | % no | % not sure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| For sporadic cases, do you have enough people to: | 48 | |||
| Compare to standardized case definition | 85 | 15 | ||
| Enter data | 79 | 19 | 2 | |
| Review data for consistency and completeness |
71 |
27 |
2 |
|
| During outbreaks, do you have enough people to: | 48 | |||
| Compare to standardized case definition | 90 | 10 | ||
| Enter data | 73 | 19 | 8 | |
| Review data for completeness and consistency |
71 |
23 |
6 |
|
| In your enteric/foodborne disease epidemiology program, do you have sufficient statistical support? |
47 |
45 |
47 |
9 |
| Do you have a dedicated enteric/foodborne disease epidemiologist at your agency? | 48 | 48 | 50 | 2 |
| If yes to question above, what is the highest level of education of the epidemiologist? | 23 | |||
| Masters degree | 61 | |||
| Doctoral degree | 26 | |||
| Bachelor degree |
13 |
|||
| During an outbreak investigation, do epidemiologists routinely accompany environmental health/sanitation specialist(s)? | 48 | 44 | 50 | 6 |
| Is there a 24-hour on-call response mechanism for foodborne disease issues? | 48 | 96 | 4 | |
| Can you get public health laboratory support 24/7/365? | 48 | 81 | 15 | 4 |
| Can you get environmental health/sanitation support 24 hours per day? | 48 | 60 | 23 | 17 |
| Do your epidemiologists receive training in environmental food facility inspections? | 48 | 13 | 85 | 2 |
| Do your environmental health/sanitation specialists receive training in epidemiology? | 48 | 63 | 33 | 4 |
