Infectious Connections: How Short-Term Foodborne Infections Can Lead to Long-Term Health Problems

Many food borne diseases are newly emerging, while others, long with us, have become more virulent. INFECTIOUS CONNECTIONS focuses on more than a dozen major food borne diseases and demonstrates how the short-term infections that they inflict may lead to a wide range of long-term chronic health disorders or increase the severity of existing health problems. Food borne pathogens, such as Salmonella and Listeria, enter the body through the intestinal tract where they cause temporary upsets. However, if they go from the intestinal tract into the bloodstream, they can invade other organs, systems and structures, where they inflict damage such as some forms of heart disease, arthritis and cancer. The general public has become aware of the rising incidence of food borne illness from many well-publicised outbreaks from contaminated beef, spinach, tomatoes and numerous other foods. Factors involved in food contamination include radical changes in agricultural practices, global warming, vast amounts of imported foods and poor personal hygiene practiced in fields, slaughterhouses, food-processing plants, institutions, restaurants and homes. The regulatory agencies responsible for food inspection and safety are woefully inadequate for the task. INFECTIOUS CONNECTIONS discusses the current dilemma and suggest ways in which the food regulators, the food chain ‘from farm to fork,’ and we, the consumers, can achieve a safer food supply.