In 2016, Food Standards Australia New Zealand commissioned the Australian National University (ANU) to develop health outcome trees for priority foodborne pathogens and related conditions. This work supported the development of a model to estimate the annual cost of foodborne illness in Australia.
Health outcome trees show the possible short- and long-term health effects that can result from infection with a particular pathogen, including hospitalisation, death and ongoing or chronic illness.
Experts assessed the significance of each pathogen based on how often it causes illness, hospitalisation, death, long-term effects and whether it could be prevented.
From this assessment, 10 priority pathogens were selected for detailed health outcome trees:
- Salmonella enterica
- Campylobacter spp.
- Listeria monocytogenes
- Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli
- Norovirus
- Yersinia entercolitica
- Other pathogenic Escherichia coli
- Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi
- Toxoplasma gondii
- Shigella spp.
The approach to estimating how often these pathogens cause illness, hospitalisations or deaths was based on the method used in the 2010 burden of disease study.
