An estimate of the cost of acute health effects from food- and water-borne marine pathogens and toxins in the USA

• Published in: Journal of water and health Vol. 9; no. 4; pp. 680 - 694
• Main Authors: Ralston, Erin P, Kite-Powell, Hauke, Beet, Andrew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England IWA Publishing 01.12.2011
• Subjects: Aetiology; Animals; Bacteria; Bacterial Toxins - toxicity; Beaches; Costs; Diseases; Economic impact; Economic models; Etiology; Food Microbiology - economics; Foodborne diseases; Foodborne Diseases - economics; Foods; Health; Health Care Costs; Humans; Illnesses; Incidence; Literature reviews; Marine ecosystems; Models, Economic; Oceans and Seas; Pathogens; Recreation; Seafood; Seafoods; Toxins; United States; Vibrio; Water Microbiology; Waterborne diseases; United States; United States > US; USA
• ISSN: 1477-8920; 1996-7829
• DOI: 10.2166/wh.2011.157

Large and growing segments of the United States population consume seafood or engage in marine recreation. These activities provide significant benefits but also bring risk of exposure to marine-borne illness. To manage these risks, it is important to understand the incidence and cost of marine-borne disease. We review the literature and surveillance/monitoring data to determine the annual incidence of disease and health consequences due to marine-borne pathogens from seafood consumption and beach recreation in the USA. Using this data, we employ a cost-of-illness model to estimate economic impacts. Our results suggest that health consequences due to marine-borne pathogens in the USA have annual costs on the order of US$900 million. This includes US$350 million due to pathogens and marine toxins specifically identified as causing food-borne disease, an estimated US$300 million due to seafood-borne disease with unknown etiology, US$30 million from direct exposure to the Vibrio species, and US$300 million due to gastrointestinal illness from beach recreation. Although there is considerable uncertainty about the degree of underreporting of certain pathogen-specific acute marine-related illnesses, the conservative assumptions we have used in constructing our estimate suggest that it should be considered a lower bound on true costs.