[Foodborne disease outbreaks around the urban Chilean areas from 2005 to 2010].

BACKGROUND

Foodborne disease outbreaks are one of the main health problems all over the world, which have an extensive impact on human health.

OBJECTIVE

[corrected] To analyze the foodborne disease outbreaks occurred in Chilean urban area from 2005 to 2010.

METHODS

We made a descriptive epidemiologic study. First, criteria were defined and classified according to previous epidemiologic investigations, clinical and environment samples, then. Variables of space, time, place and person were also analyzed.

RESULTS

Among 2,806 reported outbreaks, 2434 (86.7%) fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Incidence rate of the period (2005-2010) were 32 cases per 100 inhabitants. A total of 12,196 people were affected, with an average of 5 patients per outbreak. The households (36.2%), restaurants (16.3%), supermarkets (6.3%) free fair (4.4%) have been the most important outbreak areas. The foods involved were seafood (15.4%), fish (15.1%), and fast food (13.5%). The etiologic agents were Salmonella spp, Shigella spp, Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

CONCLUSIONS

Outbreaks foodborne diseases are frequents in the Chilean urban area, which make vulnerable a lot of people. The largest numbers happened in the households and were due to bad handling and/or inappropriate storage of the foods.