Epidemiology of Seafood Poisoning

Abstract

Seafood poisoning accounts for a large and growing proportion of all food poisoning incidents. In the United States, fish, shellfish, and other marine organisms are responsible for at least 1 in 6 food poisoning outbreaks with a known etiology, and for 15% of the deaths associated with these particular outbreaks. The proportion of foodborne illnesses attributable to seafood, based on reporting for 1988–1992, has markedly increased over the previous decade, when seafood consumption was associated with 10% of foodborne illnesses with an identified etiology (1–4). In other parts of the world, the impact of seafood poisoning is even greater. In the period 1971–1990, seafood was the single most important vehicle in food poisoning outbreaks in Korea (32%) and Japan (22%), where seafood was responsible for 43% and 62%, respectively, of outbreak-related fatalities (5,6). As with general food poisoning, seafood poisonings share the following epidemiologic characteristics: ingestion as the primary route of exposure, a wide variety of etiologies (bacterial, viral, parasitic, and toxin), significant underreporting, and an apparently increasing incidence in human populations.