I spoke to a room full of restaurant managers yesterday and shared stories about outbreaks. Stats are great, but I find that what helps me connect best with front-line staff are the stories of real people like Mason Jones and Stephanie Smith, and their families, who have to deal with the consequences of foodborne illness everyday. We see at least a couple of outbreaks reported publicly each week and while not each have tragic endings, there are thousands of people affected. 
Earlier this week I saw Rob Tauxe from CDC talk about how through Pulsenet, CDC sees on average, around 25 clusters of foodborne illness pathogens every week. Many of those outbreaks go unsolved due to a lack of data and resources Today CDC released the 2007 Outbreaknet report detailing the trends on almost 1100 foodborne illness outbreaks that year.
A CDC press release states:
"Knowing more about what types of foods and foodborne agents have caused outbreaks can help guide public health and the food industry in developing measures to effectively control and prevent infections and help people stay healthy," said Chris Braden, acting director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases.
Despite health officials’ efforts, the cause of an outbreak—either the food or the foodborne agent responsible—often cannot be determined or confirmed. This most commonly is the case when the outbreak is small. Of 1,097 reported outbreaks in 2007, 497 (or 45 percent) confirmed that one foodborne agent was responsible and in an additional 12 outbreaks more than one foodborne agent was responsible. Thus, in more than half of the outbreaks, a foodborne agent was not identified. Norovirus was the most frequently confirmed foodborne agent (39 percent), followed by Salmonella (27 percent).
Although most foodborne illnesses are sporadic, investigations of those that occur as part of recognized outbreaks provide insights into the agents, food vehicles, and food handling practices that lead to foodborne illness. Unlike laboratory-based surveillance systems, in which the sources of illnesses are rarely reported, the investigation and reporting of outbreaks provides important epidemiologic information that can be used to inform food safety policy.
And they provide the concrete examples that are effective in changing behavior. Outbreaks suck, especially for those who are affected, but when they do happen, sharing the outcomes of the investigation can be powerful in reducing the chance that a similar event happens again to someone else.
