MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2011 Dec 23;60(50):1701-4.
In 2002, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) conducted its first national food safety epidemiology capacity assessment, which provided the basis for development of minimum performance standards to guide state and local foodborne disease control programs. During April 2010, CSTE sent states a follow-up, web-based questionnaire to gather information about food safety-related workforce training and education, epidemiology and laboratory capacity, and information technology (IT) to support surveillance. This report summarizes the results of the assessment, which found that in 2010, states reported a need for 304 more full-time equivalent (FTE) employees working in food safety to reach full program capacity, with the greatest demand for master's degree-level epidemiologists (50% of demand). Barriers to investigating foodborne outbreaks reported most often by states included delayed notification of the outbreak (reported by 41 states), lack of a sufficient number of foodborne safety staff members (29 states), lower prioritization of investigations (27 states), lack of ability to pay overtime (20 states), and lack of adequate epidemiology expertise (12 states). Strategies should be developed to increase the number of food safety staff members and enhance their training opportunities, address gaps in IT, and improve the relationship between state and local health departments and federal agencies collaborating on responses to foodborne disease outbreaks.
2002 年，州和地区流行病学家委员会（CSTE）进行了首次全国食品安全流行病学能力评估，为制定最低绩效标准提供了依据，以指导州和地方食源性疾病控制计划。2010 年 4 月，CSTE 向各州发送了一份后续的网络问卷调查，以收集有关食品安全相关劳动力培训和教育、流行病学和实验室能力以及支持监测的信息技术（IT）的信息。本报告总结了评估结果，发现 2010 年各州报告称，需要增加 304 名全职等效（FTE）员工从事食品安全工作，以达到全面计划能力，对硕士学位水平的流行病学家的需求最大（占需求的 50%）。各州报告的调查食源性疾病暴发的障碍包括暴发通知延迟（41 个州报告）、食品安全工作人员数量不足（29 个州）、调查优先级较低（27 个州）、无法支付加班费（20 个州）和缺乏足够的流行病学专业知识（12 个州）。应制定战略，增加食品安全工作人员数量，增加培训机会，解决 IT 差距，并改善州和地方卫生部门与联邦机构之间的关系，共同应对食源性疾病暴发。
