An estimated 1.2 million cases of salmonellosis occur annually in the United States; of these, approximately 42,000 are laboratory-confirmed cases reported to CDC. Groups at greatest risk for severe or complicated disease include infants, the elderly, and persons with compromised immune systems.

We are one of 10 participating state health departments in a program called FoodNet (http://www.cdc.gov/foodnet/index.html), a sentinel surveillance system for foodborne diseases, working in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC’s) Emerging Infections Program (http://www.cdc.gov/ncezid/dpei/eip/index.html), US Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Services (USDA-FSIS) (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/home), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (http://www.fda.gov/food/newsevents/ucm1236341.htm). We also participate in CDC’s Foodborne Diseases Centers for Outbreak Response Enhancement (FoodCORE) (http://www.cdc.gov/foodcore/index.html), a CDC sponsored network of state and local health jurisdictions that work together to develop model practices for outbreak response, including Salmonella outbreaks.

We enhance our ability to respond to Salmonella infections and outbreaks by interviewing ill residents, detecting outbreaks, conducting thorough investigations, controlling outbreaks faster, and protecting other people from getting sick.