Archive for the ‘Food-borne diseases’ Category
** A 6-year-old boy died & his 2 siblings fell ill after eating boiled cassava in a case of suspected food poisoning in Dumanjug town, southwest Cebu.
Saturday, January 9th, 2016References
1. Siritunga D, Sayre RT: Generation of cyanogen-free transgenic
cassava. Planta 2003; 217:367-73.
2. Siritunga D, Arias-Garzon D, White W, Sayre RT: Over-expression of
hydroxynitrile lyase in transgenic cassava roots accelerates
cyanogenesis and food detoxification. Plant Biotechnol 2004; 2:37-43.
CDC: Facts about cyanide: Cyanide is released from natural substances in some foods and in certain plants such as cassava, lima beans and almonds.
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is the third most important source of calories in the tropics, after rice and maize. Millions of people depend on cassava in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is grown by poor farmers, many of them women, often on marginal land. For those people and their families, cassava is vital for both food security and income generation.
But cassava is often seen as a poor cousin in the world’s family of staple crops. While admirably tolerant to drought and productive on poor soils, this hardy tropical root seems unsuited to modern farming. First, it is usually propagated vegetatively from stem cuttings that do not store well and are costly to cut and handle. Vegetative reproduction also means the rate of multiplication of new, improved varieties is slow, retarding their adoption. Harvesting cassava is labour-intensive, and its roots are bulky and highly perishable.
Little wonder, therefore, that cassava is usually grown by poor farmers in marginal areas – and even there, it faces increasing competition as cereals are further improved to adapt them to local conditions. In fact, far less research and development have been devoted to cassava than to rice, maize and wheat. This lack of scientific interest has contributed to highly uneven cultivation and processing methods, and cassava products that often are of poor quality.
The Global Cassava Development Strategy, launched in Rome in 2000, seeks to change all that. At a forum at FAO headquarters, some 80 agricultural experts from 22 countries were asked whether cassava had the potential not only to meet the food security needs of the estimated 500 million farmers who grow it, but to provide a key to rural industrial development and higher incomes for producers, processors and traders.
The forum’s conclusion: cassava could become the raw material base for an array of processed products that will effectively increase demand for cassava and contribute to agricultural transformation and economic growth in developing countries.
CDC: In India, acute diarrheal diseases and food poisoning routinely account for over 40% of infectious disease outbreaks.
Friday, December 18th, 2015Global Disease Detection Stories: Coordinated Outbreak Response Puts Diarrhea on the Run
Globally, there are nearly 1.7 billion cases of diarrheal disease every year.
In India, the problem is widespread: acute diarrheal diseases and food poisoning routinely account for over 40% of infectious disease outbreaks.
An India EIS officer helps the district rapid response team take interviews after a food poisoning outbreak in Gujarat. Photo courtesy of Mayank Dwivedi.
People think of their wedding day as the happiest day of their lives. In India, weddings often include several days of festivities with friends and family. Symptoms like “abdominal pain,” and “vomiting” are unwanted guests, but they crashed one wedding party in Gujarat State.
Fortunately, India is committed to strengthening outbreak response and surveillance for acute diarrheal and foodborne diseases. Within 24 hours, four people were deployed to conduct an investigation to find the cause of the wedding outbreak. Two investigators were Indian EIS Officers and two were from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Combining forces, they surveyed households to track down nearly 400 wedding guests from four villages to identify potential cases and get more information about foods the sick guests ate. Ninety-two people reported symptoms and eight were hospitalized.
Spoiled milk
The culprit? The team traced the likely source of the outbreak to basundi, a dessert made of condensed milk topped with dry fruit and served cold. The officers discovered there was a 10-hour power outage two days before the wedding that affected the dairy where the milk was purchased.
Practice makes perfect
Laboratorian receives training through the Global Acute Diarrheal Disease pilot project.
Solving foodborne outbreaks is not easy. It takes training, patience, practice, and many partners. Thanks to a longstanding scientific collaboration known as the Global Foodborne Infections Network, countries, including India, are getting the tools and relationships they need to solve outbreaks. Epidemiologists, microbiologists, lab technicians, and healthcare staff are trained and mentored on procedures for stool specimen collection, transport, laboratory testing, and reporting.
The key to cracking foodborne outbreaks is testing stool specimens from sick people. In two years, as part of a pilot project, over 30 outbreaks have been detected and reported in four districts; 2000 samples have been properly collected, transported, and tested. Clinical specimens were tested in 75% of those outbreaks—results that are on par with the best standards in the world.
Plans are being discussed to double the number of districts and add activities. With better ability to track, test for, and prevent foodborne illnesses, gatherings all over India could turn away uninvited bacterial guests.
Progress in tracking and responding to acute diarrheal disease and outbreaks in India is thanks to the Global Acute Diarrheal Disease Pilot Project in partnership with CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Disease, The Global Foodborne Infections Network, and India’s National Centre for Disease Control’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Program. This work is coordinated through the GDD Center in India, which is part of CDC’s country office. India is one of 30 U.S. partner countries named in the Global Health Security Agenda.
Increasing food-borne infections in the EU in 2014
Friday, December 18th, 2015** There were 2 161 confirmed cases of Listeriosis infections in 2014, a rise of 16% compared with 2013.
** Campylobacteriosis remains the most commonly reported food-borne disease in the EU….. The number of confirmed cases in the EU in 2014 was 236 851, an increase of 10%, compared with 2013.
Read the full report: 
“The European Union summary report on trends and sources of zoonoses, zoonotic agents and food-borne outbreaks in 2014”
Press release: Campylobacter and Listeria infections still rising in the EU – say EFSA and ECDC
WHO Report: The global burden of foodborne diseases
Friday, December 4th, 2015WHO’s first ever global estimates of foodborne diseases find children under 5 account for almost one third of deaths
– First ever estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases show almost 1 in 10 people fall ill every year from eating contaminated food and 420 000 die as a result
– Children under 5 years of age are at particularly high risk, with 125 000 children dying from foodborne diseases every year
– WHO African and South-East Asia Regions have the highest burden of foodborne diseases
3 DECEMBER 2015 | GENEVA – Almost one third (30%) of all deaths from foodborne diseases are in children under the age of 5 years, despite the fact that they make up only 9% of the global population. This is among the findings of WHO’s “Estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases” – the most comprehensive report to date on the impact of contaminated food on health and well-being.
The report, which estimates the burden of foodborne diseases caused by 31 agents – bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins and chemicals – states that each year as many as 600 million, or almost 1 in 10 people in the world, fall ill after consuming contaminated food. Of these, 420 000 people die, including 125 000 children under the age of 5 years.
“Until now, estimates of foodborne diseases were vague and imprecise. This concealed the true human costs of contaminated food. This report sets the record straight,” says Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO. “Knowing which foodborne pathogens are causing the biggest problems in which parts of the world can generate targeted action by the public, governments, and the food industry.”
While the burden of foodborne diseases is a public health concern globally, the WHO African and South-East Asia Regions have the highest incidence and highest death rates, including among children under the age of 5 years.
“These estimates are the result of a decade of work, including input from more than 100 experts from around the world. They are conservative, and more needs to be done to improve the availability of data on the burden of foodborne diseases. But based on what we know now, it is apparent that the global burden of foodborne diseases is considerable, affecting people all over the world – particularly children under 5 years of age and people in low-income areas,” says Dr Kazuaki Miyagishima, Director of WHO’s Department of Food Safety and Zoonoses.
Diarrhoeal diseases are responsible for more than half of the global burden of foodborne diseases, causing 550 million people to fall ill and 230 000 deaths every year. Children are at particular risk of foodborne diarrhoeal diseases, with 220 million falling ill and 96 000 dying every year. Diarrhoea is often caused by eating raw or undercooked meat, eggs, fresh produce and dairy products contaminated by norovirus, Campylobacter, non-typhoidal Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli.
Other major contributors to the global burden of foodborne diseases are typhoid fever, hepatitis A, Taenia solium (a tapeworm), and aflatoxin (produced by mould on grain that is stored inappropriately).
Certain diseases, such as those caused by non-typhoidal Salmonella, are a public health concern across all regions of the world, in high- and low-income countries alike. Other diseases, such as typhoid fever, foodborne cholera, and those caused by pathogenic E. coli, are much more common to low-income countries, while Campylobacter is an important pathogen in high-income countries.
The risk of foodborne diseases is most severe in low- and middle-income countries, linked to preparing food with unsafe water; poor hygiene and inadequate conditions in food production and storage; lower levels of literacy and education; and insufficient food safety legislation or implementation of such legislation.
Foodborne diseases can cause short-term symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea (commonly referred to as food poisoning), but can also cause longer-term illnesses, such as cancer, kidney or liver failure, brain and neural disorders. These diseases may be more serious in children, pregnant women, and those who are older or have a weakened immune system. Children who survive some of the more serious foodborne diseases may suffer from delayed physical and mental development, impacting their quality of life permanently.
Food safety is a shared responsibility, says WHO. The report’s findings underscore the global threat posed by foodborne diseases and reinforce the need for governments, the food industry and individuals to do more to make food safe and prevent foodborne diseases. There remains a significant need for education and training on the prevention of foodborne diseases among food producers, suppliers, handlers and the general public. WHO is working closely with national governments to help set and implement food safety strategies and policies that will in turn have a positive impact on the safety of food in the global marketplace.
Note to the editor:
In addition to disease incidence and deaths, the WHO report and PLOS papers also quantify the disease burden in terms of Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs)—the number of healthy years of life lost due to illness and death—to facilitate ranking between causes of disease and across regions. The global burden of foodborne diseases caused by the 31 hazards in 2010 was 33 million DALYs; children under 5 years old bore 40% of this burden.
The policy and social impact of this report will be discussed in detail at a symposium organised by WHO and the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), 15-16 December in Amsterdam.
For more information, contact:
Fadéla Chaib, WHO
Telephone: +41 22 791 32 28+41 22 791 32 28
Mobile: +41 79 475 55 56+41 79 475 55 56
E-mail: chaibf@who.int
Olivia Lawe-Davies, WHO
Telephone: +41-22-7911209+41-22-7911209
Mobile: +41-794755545+41-794755545
Email: lawedavieso@who.int
Highlights of the Report by WHO Region
WHO African Region
The WHO African Region was estimated to have the highest burden of foodborne diseases per population. More than 91 million people are estimated to fall ill and 137 000 die each year.
Diarrhoeal diseases are responsible for 70% of foodborne diseases in the African Region. Non-typhoidal Salmonella, which can be caused by contaminated eggs and poultry, causes the most deaths, killing 32 000 a year in the Region—more than half of the global deaths from the disease. 10% of the overall foodborne disease burden in this Region is caused by Taenia solium (the pork tapeworm).
Chemical hazards, specifically cyanide and aflatoxin, cause one quarter of deaths from foodborne diseases in the Region. Konzo, a particular form of paralysis caused by cyanide in cassava, is unique to the African Region, resulting in death in 1 in 5 people affected.
WHO Region of the Americas
The WHO Region of the Americas is estimated to have the second lowest burden of foodborne diseases globally. Nevertheless 77 million people still fall ill every year from contaminated food, with an estimated 9000 deaths annually in the Region. Of those who fall ill, 31 million are under the age of 5 years, resulting in more than 2000 of these children dying a year.
While the overall burden of diarrhoeal diseases is lower than in other Regions, it is still the most common foodborne disease in the Region of the Americas with Norovirus, Campylobacter, E. coli and non-typhoidal Salmonella causing 95% of cases.
Toxoplasmosis and the pork tapeworm (Taenia solium) are very important food safety concerns in the Central and South America. Toxoplasmosis is spread through undercooked or raw meat and fresh produce, and can result in impaired vision and neurological conditions.
WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region
The Eastern Mediterranean Region has the third highest estimated burden of foodborne diseases per population, after the African and South-East Asia Regions. More than 100 million people living in the Eastern Mediterranean Region are estimated to become ill with a foodborne disease every year and 32 million of those affected are children under 5 years.
Diarrhoeal diseases (caused by E. coli, Norovirus, Campylobacter and non-typhoidal Salmonella) account for 70% of the burden of foodborne disease.
An estimated 37 000 people in the Eastern Mediterranean Region die each year from unsafe food, caused primarily by diarrhoeal diseases, typohoid fever, hepatitis A, and brucellosis. Both typhoid fever and hepatitis A are contracted from food contaminated by the faeces of an infected person and brucellosis is commonly caused by unpasteurized milk or cheese of infected goats or sheep. Half of the global cases of brucellosis are in people living in this Region, with more than 195 000 people infected every year, causing fever, muscle pain or more severe arthritis, chronic fatigue, neurologic symptoms and depression.
WHO European Region
The report highlights that although the WHO European Region has the lowest estimated burden of foodborne diseases globally, more than 23 million people in the Region fall ill from unsafe food every year, resulting in 5000 deaths.
Diarrhoeal diseases account for the majority of foodborne illnesses in the WHO European Region with the most common being Norovirus infections, causing an estimated 15 million cases, followed by campylobacteriosis, causing close to 5 million cases. Non-typhoid salmonellosis causes the highest number of deaths—almost 2000 annually.
Foodborne toxoplasmosis, a severe parasitic disease spread through undercooked or raw meat and fresh produce, may cause up to 20% of the total foodborne disease burden and affects more than 1 million people in the Region each year. Listeria infection also has a severe impact on the health of people who contract it and causes an estimated 400 deaths in the European Region annually. Listeria can result in septicaemia and meningitis, and is usually spread by consuming contaminated raw vegetables, ready-to-eat meals, processed meats, smoked fish or soft cheeses.
WHO South-East Asia Region
The WHO South-East Asia Region has the second highest burden of foodborne diseases per population, after the African Region. However, in terms of absolute numbers, more people living in the WHO South-East Asia Region fall ill and die from foodborne diseases every year than in any other WHO Region, with more than 150 million cases and 175 000 deaths a year. Some 60 million children under the age of 5 fall ill and 50 000 die from foodborne diseases in the South-East Asia Region every year.
Diarrhoeal disease causing agents, Norovirus, non-typhoidal Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli cause the majority of foodborne disease deaths in the Region. Additionally, the pork tapeworm (Taenia solium) has a major impact on health. It can cause cysts to develop in the brain, which is the most frequent preventable cause of epilepsy worldwide.
Globally, half of the people who are infected and die from either Typhoid fever or hepatitis A reside in the South-East Asia Region.
WHO Western Pacific Region
Every year, 125 million people in the WHO Western Pacific Region become ill from contaminated food, causing more than 50 000 deaths. As in other Regions, the burden is highest in children under 5 years of age with 40 million falling ill and 7000 dying every year.
Unlike other Regions of the world, where diarrhoeal diseases cause the highest proportion of deaths, aflatoxin is estimated to be the leading cause of foodborne disease deaths in the Western Pacific Region. Aflatoxin is a toxin produced by mould that grows on grain that has been stored inappropriately, and can cause liver cancer, one of the most deadly forms of cancer. More than 10 000 people in the Western Pacific are estimated to develop liver cancer due to aflatoxin every year, with the disease proving fatal in 9 out of 10 people. An estimated 70% of people who become ill from aflatoxin worldwide live in the WHO Western Pacific Region.
The Western Pacific Region also has the highest death rate from foodborne parasites, particularly the Chinese liver fluke (Clonorchis sinensis), Echinococcus multilocularis and Taenia solium (the pork tapeworm). The Chinese liver fluke, which is commonly contracted through raw and incorrectly processed or cooked fish, infects more than 30 000 people in the Region a year, causing death in 1 in 5 cases. Almost all of those who are infected with Chinese liver fluke in the world live in the Western Pacific. The highest disease burden results from the disabling impact of Paragonimus spp. infections of the lungs and central nervous system.