Seasonality of Human Illnesses Associated With Foodborne Pathogens

Figure 7.3

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Allison Crimmins

This figure appears in chapter 7 of the The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment report.

A review of the published literature from 1960 to 2010 indicates a summertime peak in the incidence of illnesses associated with infection from a) Campylobacter, b) Salmonella, and c) Escherichia coli (E. coli). For these three pathogens, the monthly seasonality index shown here on the y-axis indicates the global disease incidence above or below the yearly average, which is denoted as 100. For example, a value of 145 for the month of July for Salmonellosis would mean that the proportion of cases for that month was 45% higher than the 12 month average. Unlike these three pathogens, incidence of norovirus, which can be attained through food, has a wintertime peak. The y-axis of the norovirus incidence graph (d) uses a different metric than (a–c): the monthly proportion of the annual sum of norovirus cases in the northern hemisphere between 1997 and 2011. For example, a value of 0.12 for March would indicate that 12% of the annual cases occurred during that month). Solid line represents the average; confidence intervals (dashed lines) are plus and minus one standard deviation. (Figure sources: a, b, and c: adapted from Lal et al. 2012; d: adapted from Ahmed et al. 2013)84097f67-e3ee-4293-a657-b7f7d2b91e29 04230d65-7ec8-4b53-a59a-fa960649b9c4

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This figure was created on January 07, 2015.

The spatial range for this figure is N/A° to N/A° latitude, and N/A° to N/A° longitude.

This figure was derived from Seasonality in human zoonotic enteric diseases: A systematic review .

References :

• A systematic review and meta-analysis of the global seasonality of norovirus (04230d65)
• Seasonality in human zoonotic enteric diseases: A systematic review (84097f67)

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