Trichinella spiralis infection--United States, 1990.

Since 1947, when the Public Health Service began to record statistics on trichinosis, the number of cases reported by state health departments each year has declined: in the late 1940s, health departments reported an average of 400 cases and 10-15 deaths each year; from 1982 through 1986, the number declined to an average of 57 per year (Figure 1) and a total of three deaths (1,2). Although this trend reflects a decline in the number of cases related to commercially purchased pork, recent outbreaks of trichinosis in Iowa and Virginia emphasize the continuing need for education about the dangers of eating inadequately cooked pork.