Quick Quiz: You Found the Source!

At a glance

Correct! The lettuce turned out to be the source of the outbreak of Pathogen X_2a. Read on to find out what happened next.

Lettuce contaminated by Pathogen X_2a

Congratulations! Your team determined this outbreak was likely caused by contaminated romaine lettuce.

After identifying lettuce as the likely source, researchers used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to test lettuce samples from various suppliers. They were able to confirm that the strain of Pathogen X from a particular growing region matched the strain that made people sick.

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A game board showing the primary strain in the community was Pathogen X_2a and the most common item was lettuce.
Your team sequenced samples from patients and integrated the pathogen genomic data with the public health data.

Thanks to your team, notices went out alerting the public and advising them not to eat romaine lettuce grown in that area. The company issued a recall to remove contaminated products from grocery shelves. And local healthcare professionals were asked to be vigilant about suspecting and reporting other possible cases of Pathogen X.

Learn More

Learn about a real-world outbreak investigation using whole-genome sequencing.

Learn how genomic sequencing is used for other kinds of infectious disease at AMD in Action.

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Content Source:
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID)