According to a study by Public Health France, published in the Weekly epidemiological bulletin (BEH), food-borne infections kill an average of 250 people each year in France.
In this study, morbidity and mortality estimates were made for 21 pathogens: 10 bacteria, 3 viruses and 8 parasites. The latter are responsible each year, in metropolitan France, for 4.9 million infections, 42,800 hospitalizations and 376 deaths. But if we consider only the transmission through food, there are 1.5 million infections, 17,600 hospitalizations and 256 deaths.
The highest number of deaths are due to salmonella
• Noroviruses appear to be responsible for the largest number of cases, i.e. 34% of the total number of foodborne cases. They rank 3rd in number of hospitalizations (20% of the total number of hospitalizations for foodborne infection) but only 7th in number of deaths (8 deceased cases).
• Campylobacter spp infections. rank 2nd in number of cases, or 26% of the total number, but in first position in number of hospitalizations (31% of the total number) and in 3rd position in number of deaths (41 deceased cases).
• Salmonella spp infections. come in 3rd position in number of cases with only 12% of the total number but in 2nd position in number of hospitalizations (24% of the total number) and in 1st position in number of deaths (67 deceased cases).
• Finally, L. monocytogenes is not a common pathogen (less than 0.1% of foodborne cases) but it ranks 2nd in number of deaths (65 deceased cases).
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