title: Strategies for recognizing acute chemical-associated foodborne illness.
abstract: The U.S. food supply is vulnerable to contamination with chemicals and toxins. Public health officials and clinicians may misdiagnose patients with acute chemical-associated foodborne illness (CAFI) due to unfamiliarity with chemical illness, increased familiarity with infectious foodborne illness, nonspecific presentation of most foodborne chemical poisoning, lack of readily available analytic methodologies to detect chemicals, and lack of education on how to develop a differential diagnosis for CAFI. This article will review the unique features of CAFI in the acute setting, address important questions to help differentiate CAFI from other foodborne illness, discuss laboratory features of CAFI, and provide health officials and clinicians with a clinical symptom-based approach to assist with proper identification and differentiation of acute CAFI.
authors.affiliation: CDC/NCEH/EHHE/HSB MS F-46, National Center for Environmental Health, Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, NE, Chamblee, GA 30341, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Schier
authors.forename: Helen Schurz
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.forename: Manish M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Carol A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Rubin
authors.forename: Martin G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Belson
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005513:Food Inspection; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000633:toxicity*; D006801:Humans; D011159:Population Surveillance; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D015386:Hazardous Substances