Published
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.
