GI disease "costs USA at least $42 bill/year"

Cases of gastrointestinal diseases number more than 283 million in theUSA each year, costing the nation at least $42 billion, estimates a new study conducted by The Lewin Group for the American Gastroenterological Association and TAP Pharmaceutical Products.

However, according to Mark Donowitz, a member of the study's advisory board, this "titanic" burden represents just a small part of the problem, as the study examined only 17 out of 300 digestive disorders.

Of the diseases studied, the most prevalent was found to be foodborne illness, with an estimated 135 million US cases annually. Next was non-foodborne gastroenteritis with 76 million cases, then gallbladder disease - 20.5 million, gastroesophageal reflux disease - 18.6 million, irritable bowel syndrome - 15.4 million and peptic ulcer disease - 6.7 million.