The Population-Level Impacts of Excluding Norovirus-Infected Food Workers From the Workplace: A Mathematical Modeling Study

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Wen Yang, Emory University; Molly Steele, Emory University; Benjamin Lopman, Emory University; Juan Leon, Emory University; Aron J Hall, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-01-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 2018.
• License: Creative Commons Universal : Public Domain Dedication
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwy198
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: American Journal of Epidemiology
• Volume: 188
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 177
• End Page: 187
• Grant/Funding Information: National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture (award 2011-68003-30395)
• Keywords: disease transmission; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; NORWALK VIRUS; restaurant employees; norovirus; Science & Technology; OUTBREAK; UNITED-STATES; mathematical models; DURATION; VACCINES; food workers; ACUTE GASTROENTERITIS; CHALLENGE
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Epidemiology; Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

Norovirus is the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis and foodborne disease in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration recommends that food workers infected with norovirus be excluded from the workplace while symptomatic and for 48 hours after their symptoms subside. Compliance with this recommendation is not ideal, and the population-level impacts of changes in food-worker compliance have yet to be quantified. We aimed to assess the population impacts of varying degrees of compliance with the current recommendation through the use of a compartmental model. We modeled the number and proportion of symptomatic norovirus cases averted annually in the US population (using data from 1983-2014) in specific age groups (children aged <5 years, children aged 5-17 years, adults aged 18-64 years, and adults aged ≥65 years) under various scenarios of food-worker exclusion (i.e., proportion compliant and days of postsymptomatic exclusion) in comparison with a referent scenario which assumed that 66.6% of norovirus-symptomatic food workers and 0% of postsymptomatic food workers were excluded from work. Overall, we estimated that 6.0 million cases of norovirus have already been avoided annually under the referent scenario and that 6.7 million (28%) more cases might be avoided through 100% compliance with the current recommendations. Substantial population-level benefits were predicted from improved compliance in exclusion of norovirus-infected food workers from the workplace - benefits that may be realized through policies or programs incentivizing self-exclusion.