FP Advisor allows investigators to consider a wide range of disease possibilities in a foodborne disease investigation. By querying the database using known information such as specific symptoms, incubation period, duration of illness, and type of food the program generates a list of disease possibilities. The investigator can then choose to view or print details of each disease possibility. Some can be readily ruled out while others may warrant laboratory or other investigative follow-up.
The database used by FP Advisor was compiled from:
Bryan FL, Diseases Transmitted by Foods - A Classification and Summary (Second Edition), Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, USA, 1982
And:
Bryan FL, Anderson HW, Cook OD, Guzewich J, Lewis KH, Swanson RC, Todd ECD, Procedures to Investigate Foodborne Illness (Fourth Edition), Committee on Communicable Diseases Affecting Man (Food Subcommittee), International Association of Milk, Food, and Environmental Sanitarians, Inc., Iowa, USA, 1988
FP Advisor is based on the original dBase III program by Thomas E. Crook of the Food Service Sanitation Section of the Michigan State Department of Agriculture.
Download FP Advisor (4.19MB)
The downloaded file will be called FPASetup.exe. When you run this file it will create a series of files in your /WINDOWS/TEMP directory (or wherever you tell it to). To install FP Advisor you need to run the file SETUP.EXE.
FP Advisor is a 32-bit Microsoft Windows application and will run under Microsoft Windows '95, '98, and NT 3.51 or later.
The use of standard file formats allows users with any database product that can access Microsoft Access '95 data (.MDB) files and a word-processor capable of reading and writing rich text format (RTF) files to easily customise the FP Advisor database.
The database has been in use since 1992 and is believed to be free of error. If you find any errors in the database then please contact us. If you have any useful additions then please contact us.
The original version of FP Advisor (above) runs on version of Windows up to and including Windows 7. Ajith Ramayan of the Indian Ordnance Factories Health Service has produced a version of FP Advisor that runs on later versions of Windows. The database than been updated and an alternative user interface which selects search results based on likelihood scores has been added.
The downloaded file will be called fpa2Setup.exe. This is the installer.