A CDC report says chicken is the most common source of food poisoning in the US, but vegetable eaters had better beware, too.
 
According to the report, the culprit behind most poultry-related illnesses is Clostridium perfringens, a bacterium that provokes  cramping and diarrhea approximately 10 to 12 hours after the fateful swallow.

Claustridia spores can survive cooking, so maintaining poultry meat at low temperatures during processing and storage ends up being the key preventive measure.

Researchers counted leafy vegetables, root vegetables, vegetables from stalks or vines, fungi and sprouts as separate categories. Had all that produce been combined, vegetable-associated outbreaks would have far exceeded those caused by poultry.

Salmonella is the pathogen responsible for most cases of food-borne illnesses associated with vegetables. It has caused national outbreaks from contaminated peanut butter, spinach and tomatoes in the last few years.

Interestingly, viruses—which can end up on food when restaurant workers fail to wash their hands before handling it—topped straight-up food borne illnesses by almost two to one.

These viruses cause most cases of “stomach flu,” a lovely 48-hour run of nausea and vomiting that has nothing to do with the actual flu virus.

“We’re glad that CDC is finally coming out with good attribution data,” Caroline Smith DeWaal told the New York Times. The director of food safety at Science in the Public Interest added, “it shows the need for improvement, not only at FDA but at the USDA’s food safety programs as well.”

The findings were based on an analysis of reports submitted to the CDC by state and local health departments. Unfortunately, most of the roughly 76 million annual cases of food-borne illness are not reported, and most reported cases are not investigated.

A version of this post initially appeared on the Practice Fusion blog.

In the last 2 years alone, Big Pharma has cut its sales force by 10% to 92,000 and some experts predict the number could drop by another 15,000 in the next 2 years.

That will save $3.6 billion for the pharmaceutical companies, who know all too well that results from the investment it has made in its sales force are way down.

In fact, just 37% of drug reps who visit physician offices are able to place drug products in the sample drawer, and a only 20% speak directly with a physician.

Nearly a quarter of all physicians practice within a group that bans reps altogether.

That one reason why Big Pharma has become so excited about ePromotion, a term encompassing 3 relatively new techniques by which drug manufacturers can doctors about their products, even in the absence of Sid the Drug Rep.

The ePromotion troika includes virtual details, which include video and audiotapes, text messages and email (but no live communication), video details, which include live chat or telephone-assisted Internet sessions in which physicians can speak directly with a representative, and virtual events which include CME events, webinars, conference calls and panel discussions.

Big Pharma’s enthusiasm will likely grow as it digests the results of a new survey showing that doctors’ attitudes toward ePromotion are becoming increasingly positive.

SDIHealth concluded this after completing its Annual Study of ePromotion, the 8th such iteration of the poll.

The Study revealed that 67% of physicians expressed a positive attitude toward ePromotion, up 5% from the previous year.

73% of the surveyed physicians felt ePromotion was at least as effective as face-to-face promotion by drug reps, a jump from 68% the year before.

 The average time spent per doctor, per ePromotion activity was a robust 18 minutes.

With each year, “we have seen acceptance toward ePromotion among physicians increase,” said Jason Fox, Associate Director at SDI.

“The results of this survey underscore a growing opportunity for the two groups to interact more regularly.”