Food-borne illnesses: how prevalent are they? Roughly 48 million Americans – or 1 in 6 – get sick and about 3,000 die from some type of food-borne illness each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Reports published Wednesday in Emerging Infectious Diseases also provide a picture of which pathogens cause the most illnesses. Salmonella tops the list for hospitalizations and deaths.
