Food-borne viruses, bacteria and protozoa caused some 582 million cases of intestinal infection and 351,000 deaths in 2010, according to new figures from the (WHO).
The agency, which released the data on April 2, recommends common-sense measures to lessen the health and economic toll of illnesses caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites and chemicals in food. These steps include improving basic sanitation, building government capacity to track cases of foodborne illness, and ensuring that health workers are trained and equipped to treat the sick.
Efforts are now accelerating to complement such tactics by developing vaccines against some common foodborne microbes. Takeda, a pharmaceutical firm based in Osaka, Japan, is testing a potential vaccine against norovirus in phase II clinical trials, after researchers demonstrated its efficacy against several common viral strains. And the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of Seattle, Washington, has committed US$50 million since 2007 to a consortium seeking to develop vaccines against two foodborne bacteria, Shigella and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC). The foundation plans to spend another $64 million on the programme to 2018.
Studies suggest that vaccination can produce immediate, cost-effective results and build immunity in a population, whereas sanitation programmes are harder to implement broadly and take longer to achieve modest improvements.
“We need vaccines to complement changes in water- and food-hygiene behaviour,” says Deborah Atherly, a health economist at PATH, a non-profit global-health organization in Seattle, Washington.
Vaccines Developed to Fight Foodborne Illness - Scientific American
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