Environmental Health Specialist Network

 描述(由申请人提供)：拟议工作的长期目标是减少与明尼苏达州和整个美国的商业食品机构有关的食源性疾病。具体目标是：1)增加和改进在食源性疾病暴发调查期间进行的环境评估；2)确定与食源性疾病暴发有关的致病因素和前置因素；3)通过专项研究识别和了解与零星食源性疾病有关的环境因素；4)评估明尼苏达州的食品安全计划；5)综合EHS-Net研究项目的结果，并将其传播到环境卫生社区和食品服务业；以及，6)制定、实施和评估商业食品店的干预措施，以减少食源性疾病的发生率。明尼苏达州卫生部自EHS-Net成立以来一直是EHS-Net的领导者和积极参与者，并建议继续以同样的方式参与EHS-Net。MDH环境卫生司的环境卫生专家和MDH食源性、水性、传播性和人畜共患病科的流行病学家将继续组成MDH EHS-Net小组，并将密切合作开展EHS-Net活动。将对可报告的细菌和原虫病原体进行积极的基于人群的监测，同时进行最先进的暴发检测和调查。将使用标准工具对明尼苏达州商业食品机构的所有食源性疫情进行环境评估，以便为国家自愿环境评估信息系统[NVEAIS]收集高质量的数据。将在先前选定的抽样框架内对餐馆随机抽样进行特别研究，以确定导致零星食源性疾病的做法、行为或其他危险因素。另一个拟议的项目是综合所有以前的EHS-Network，并以有效的形式向目标受众传播。最后，我们建议正在进行的工作的一个主要部分将是利用过去EHS-Net活动中的数据和经验教训来制定、实施和评估商业食品机构的干预措施。MDH将继续与EHS-Net合作伙伴(其他州、CDC、FDA和EPA)建立沟通和合作，并将积极参与EHS-Net指导委员会决定的多地点研究。将根据从EHS-Net吸取的经验教训，继续积极开展对整个明尼苏达州的环境健康专家和行业团体的教育。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of the proposed work is to reduce foodborne illness associated with commercial food establishments in Minnesota and the entire U.S. Specific aims are to: 1) increase and improve environmental assessments conducted during foodborne illness outbreak investigations; 2) identify contributing factors and antecedents factors associated with foodborne illness outbreaks; 3) identify and understand environmental factors associated with sporadic foodborne illness through special studies; 4) evaluate food safety programs in Minnesota; 5) synthesize and disseminate the findings from EHS-Net research projects to the environmental health community and the food service industry; and, 6) develop, implement, and evaluate interventions at commercial food establishments that will reduce the incidence of foodborne illness. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has been a leader and active participant in EHS-Net since its inception and proposes to continue EHS-Net involvement in the same fashion going forward. Environmental health specialists from the MDH Division of Environmental Health and epidemiologists from the MDH Foodborne, Waterborne, Vector borne, and Zoonotic Diseases Section will continue to comprise the MDH EHS- Net team and will work closely together to conduct EHS-Net activities. Active population-based surveillance for reportable bacterial and protozoal pathogens will be conducted, along with state-of the art outbreak detection and investigation. Environmental assessments will be conducted on all foodborne outbreaks in commercial food establishments in Minnesota using standard tools to allow collection of high quality data for the National Voluntary Environmental Assessment Information System [NVEAIS]. Special studies to identify practices, behaviors, or other risk factors that lead to sporadic foodborne illness will be conducted at random samples of restaurants in previously selected sampling frameworks. Another proposed project is to synthesize all previous EHS-Network and disseminate it to target audiences in an effective format. Finally, a major part of our proposed ongoing work will be to use data and lessons learned from past EHS-Net activities to develop, implement, and evaluate interventions at commercial food establishments. MDH will continue to build communication and collaborations with EHS-Net partners (other states, CDC, FDA, and EPA) and will actively participate in multi-site studies decided on by the EHS-Net Steering Committee. Education of environmental health specialists and industry groups throughout Minnesota, based on lessons learned from EHS-Net, will continue to be actively pursued.