Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli: costs of illness in Canada, including long-term health outcomes.
The main objective of this study was to provide cost estimates of human Escherichia coli O157 infection to facilitate future assessment of the benefits and costs of alternative preventive strategies to reduce illness. We investigated the costs of illness to Canadians from primary human infection by verotoxigenic E. coli O157 (also called Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157) using data from the National Notifiable Diseases Registry. We used relative risk information from peer-reviewed publications to estimate the burden of illness and associated costs for eight long-term health outcomes. National estimates of the number of cases (mean and 5th and 95th percentiles), associated costs, and a rank correlation test to identify which outcomes were associated with the highest per capita costs were calculated. An estimated 22,344 cases of primary infections occur in Canada annually, costing $26.7 million. There are 37,867 additional on-going long-term health outcomes costing $377.2 million each year. Our analysis indicated that the annual cost for primary and long-term illness is $403.9 million. The analysis supports evaluation of alternative control and prevention measures and the development and implementation of policy and practices aimed at safe food production.
University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1.
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Sockett
Bioniche Life Sciences, 231 Dundas Street E., Belleville, Ontario, Canada K8N 1E2. susan.goebel@bioniche.com.
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Goebel
University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1.
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Varela
Novometrix Research, Inc., Moffat, Ontario, Canada L0P 1J0.
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Guthrie
Novometrix Research, Inc., Moffat, Ontario, Canada L0P 1J0.
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Wilson
BIOptima Consulting, Inc., Saint-Bruno, Québec, Canada J3V 6G8.
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Guilbault
London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5W9.
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Clark
D002170:Canada; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000191:economics* / Q000473:pathology*; D019453:Escherichia coli O157 / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D059022:Food Safety; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D012042:Registries