Investigations by the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée Infection of food and food-borne infections in the Mediterranean Basin and in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Food-borne infections are major causes of public health concern in developing and developed countries. During the past decade, the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée Infection has conducted or been involved in multiple investigations that aimed at identifying the sources and strains responsible for food-borne diseases and therefore at improving the understanding, diagnosis, prevention and control of these infections. Investigations were conducted in the Mediterranean area and in sub-Saharan Africa on more than 15 food-borne agents, 17 food products and 14 antibiotic resistance-associated genes. Multiple sources, including unexpected ones, and pathogens, including emerging ones, were involved. Travelling in developing countries and zoonoses are major contributors to food-borne infections, while food-borne transmission of resistance-associated genes is increasingly reported. However, risk factors and pathogens associated with food-borne infections likely remain untapped and must be more extensively investigated, monitored and regularly reassessed. Diagnostic tests based on new technologies and real-time surveillance tools based on microbiology laboratory data are promising approaches to detect known food-borne infections and decipher new ones. Studies of the microbiota and its relationships with dietary patterns are also worth being conducted.

Keywords: Africa; IHU Mediterranée Infection; Mediterranean Basin; bacteria; food; food-borne; fungus; infections; virus; zoonosis.

Fig. 1

Countries from Mediterranean Basin, Africa and Middle East where identifications of food-borne pathogens in food and/or humans involved teams from Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée Infection. Virus, bacteria and antibiotic schematics indicate that viruses, bacteria and/or antibiotic-resistant bacteria/genes have been identified in food (food item schematic) and/or in asymptomatic carriers (green-person schematic) and/or in diseased patients (red-person schematic). The food item schematic represents some examples of food items that may be involved in transmission of infectious agents, but they are not necessarily those involved or suspected for a given geographical area/country.