The Foodborne Disease Outbreaks in the U.S. Schools (Essay Sample)

The Foodborne Disease Outbreaks in the U.S. Schools
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The Foodborne Disease Outbreaks in the U.S. Schools
The foodborne illness is the irritation or infection of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract caused by food beverages containing harmful parasites, bacteria, viruses, or chemicals. The basic symptoms of this infection include vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, chills, and fever. Majority of the illness is acute, that is, they happen frequently and last for a very short time. Further, most people recover on their own without undergoing any treatment. However, this illness may lead to a more severe complication in the human body. There are always a recorded number of individuals suffering from the problems. Apart from hospitalization, foodborne illness causes deaths of many people in the United States. Therefore, this paper is going to focus on foodborne disease outbreaks in United States schools.
Majority of the American students eat meals prepared and served at their schools every weekday. Many children in America have their lunch programs in schools through the National School Lunch program. Despite the reports of numerous foodborne outbreaks in schools, the degree of these outbreaks lacks systematic description. Therefore, it is important to review data of the outbreaks available in school to have a better understanding of the epidemiology of the given outbreaks. Also, doing that will enable the improvement of prevention methods to ensure there is a limited number of affected students and pupils. Reports by CDC are the important tools for analyzing the extent and strength of the foodborne disease. It is because the local, health departments, state, and territorial provide essential reports necessary for analysis ("Centers for Disease Control and Prevention", 2015). Further, the summaries given in the reports help the public understand the food, germs, settings, and the contributing factors of this illness. Further, they help in identifying the emerging threats by the foodborne disease, thus, the information can be useful in assessing and shaping outbreak prevention.
There are several effects of the outbreak on human health and ecology as well. It is so open that there are health effects of the U.S. food system in school and the nation at large. There is the inclusion of the important health effects that result from the exposure of the general population to the environmental pollutants that are associated with agricultural and food operations. The primary diet-related hazards to the available illness relate to food overconsumption, thus, contributing to the etiology of other leading causes of morbidity and mortality. The impacts may include but not limited to type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and cancer ("Knowledge Center", 2017). The foodborne diseases sometimes contribute to diet-related ailments. Some of the other adverse effects of this issue are the resistance and susceptibility. The human gets protection against the disease by several immune system mechanisms. The chances of the foodborne disease are minimal when all the necessary body systems function optimally. Therefore, susceptibility to the infectious illness is the ability of the host’s body to fight or overpower invasion by the pathogenic microorganisms. The condition increases by the condition of the host becoming defensive and suppressive to the body’s immune system function.
The characteristics of the majority of the foodborne disease are the acute symptoms that are only limited to the gastrointestinal, which include diarrhea and vomiting. The illness is often limited to both the severity and duration ("Knowledge Center", 2017). Further, many patients find it difficult to tackle this risk because the medical treatment is not sought. Other pathogens can lead to gastrointestinal symptoms posing a lot of difficulties and are more severe, thus, taking very long to subside. The most vulnerable people for these severe effects are the elderly, children or people living with AIDS. However, not all the foodborne diseases are limited to the gastrointestinal tract. There are those pathogens that produce toxins that invade the deeper tissues and leads to the systematic symptoms. The systematic symptoms include a headache, fever, anemia, failure of the kidney, and even death ("Knowledge Center", 2017). Further, some of the foodborne risks cause chronic illness that is always within the sensitive subgroups of the populations. Schoolchildren are among the subgroup of the entire population in the United States. Therefore, this is one of the adverse effects of the risk in question. The worst thing with the risk is that it can even cause death when it fails to receive fast treatment or medication.
Contamination of food can occur any time from the time food is brought from the source to the dining table. While it is the responsibility of every individual to ensure they take full responsibility of the food they take, it is also necessary for the government and other responsible bodies to help during such risks ("Centers for Disease Control and Prevention", 2015). In an event that two or more people get the same disease from contaminated drink or food, the public health officials investigate the outbreaks to control them from spreading ("Food Safety", 2016). Therefore, it becomes their responsibilities to make sure that more people do not get sick. Further, the health bodies learn ways to prevent the future risks from arising. Apart from the health officials, other agencies or bodies also need to respond to the risk to make sure there are collective efforts towards improving the current situation.
It is essential that the local agencies take their time to investigate the main cause of the outbreaks. The local agencies consist of the public health officials in the city where the outbreak is reported. The group has good information pertaining the affected school and, therefore, finding the source of the problems becomes so easy ("Food Safety", 2016). Also, the state agencies have a very vital role to play in the quest to make things better in such risk occurrences. The department mostly works with the state Department of Agriculture together with the federal food and safety agencies. The main aim of doing that is to ensure there is proper coordination of officials to deliver the quality and safe food to the children in schools.
The other crucial department is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency is responsible for the outbreak that...