ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION A. Overview of Seafood-Borne Disease Risks and hazards are associated with all forms of human activities. While humans may choose to minimize or eliminate some risks by changing or eliminating a certain type of behavior or activity, all humans must consume food and water to live. In some regions of the world, the consumption of food and water can be, unfortunately, routinely associated with exposure to pathogenic organisms. Inhabitants of developed countries generally as sume that their supply of food and water is safe, and government regulatory and public health agencies are charged with the task of ensuring the safety of these items. In many regions, however, infectious disease is a way of life, responsible for the deaths of millions of people each year in developing countries. Part of this infectious disease is associated with the transmission of pathogenic microorganisms in the food and water that is con sumed. The World Health Organization (1) reported that in 1997, of a global total of 52.2 million deaths, 17.3 million or one-third were due to infectious and parasitic diseases.
