8.3.1: Preparation 1.9-W Medical Testing

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Every person is at risk of foodborne illnesses.”¹ A foodborne illness is an illness a person gets from eating food that has spoiled or been contaminated in some way.

(1) In industrialized countries, such as the United States, up to 30% of the population suffers from foodborne diseases each year. This means that 30 out of _________ people living in industrialized countries will likely suffer from foodborne diseases each year.

(2) In 1994, an outbreak of illness due to ice cream contaminated with the bacteria salmonella occurred in the U.S. The outbreak affected an estimated 224,000 people.

(a) If the total population in the United States at that time was 260,000,000, which is the best estimate for the percentage of people who were affected?

(i) About 0.1%

(ii) About 1%

(iii) About 5%

(iv) About 10%

(v) About 25%

(b) Complete the following statement: _________ out of every 100,000 people in the United States were affected by the 1994 salmonella outbreak. Round to the nearest whole person.

(3) A report about foodborne illnesses indicated “About 1 egg out of every 20,000 contains salmonella inside the shell.” This means that

(i) 0.005% of eggs contain salmonella.

(ii) about 1% of eggs contain salmonella.

(iii) more than 1% of eggs contain salmonella.

(iv) approximately 50 out of every 100,000 eggs contain salmonella.

(4) In 2011, Germany had an outbreak of illness caused by the bacteria called E. coli. As of June 15 of that year, 3,235 people in Germany had become sick and 36 had died.² What percentage of those who got sick also died? Round to the nearest tenth of percent.

In the next collaboration, you will be looking at probability related to HIV testing. Please read the following article about HIV testing in preparation: https://carnegiemathpathways.org/go/slatehivtest

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