‘1.3m get food-borne diseases’
Director General of Health Services Ruth Aceng (L) and State Minister for Primary Healthcare Sarah Opendi (C) at the World Health Day conference in Kampala yesterday. PHOTO RACHEAL AJWANG
What you need to know:
Causes. A study attributes the rise in the number of patients diagnosed with the diseases to poor sanitation and consumption of contaminated water
Kampala.
About 1.3 million Ugandans are diagnosed with food-borne diseases annually, a new survey has revealed.
The study released by ministry of Health yesterday in Kampala to mark World Health Day, indicates that 14 per cent of all diseases treated every year are due to food contamination.
A food-borne illness is an infection or irritation of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract caused by food or beverages that contain harmful bacteria, parasites, viruses, or chemicals.
Common symptoms of food-borne illnesses include vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fever, and chills.
Food-borne diseases include; cholera, dysentery, acute non-bloody diarrhoea, persistent non-bloody diarrhoea and typhoid.
The study dubbed: “The National Burden Food-Borne diseases Pilot Study Report,” attributes the rise in the number of patients diagnosed with the diseases to sanitation failures, consumption of contaminated water, chemical residues and other contaminants in food.
According to the report, about 182,370 were diagnosed with typhoid, about 650 with brucellosis, 111,664 with bacillary dysentery, and 5,232 with cholera in 2012.
In Kampala, the outbreak of cholera and typhoid has been blamed on floods due to the el nino weather phenomenon and contaminated water sources.
In Kasese and Bushenyi districts, the outbreaks of human anthrax that occurred between 2008 and 2009 were due to consumption of meat from infected wild animal carcasses from Queen Elizabeth National Park.
While launching the report, the state minister for Primary Healthcare, Ms Sarah Opendi, said the survey will assist in sensitising the public about the challenge and burden of food borne diseases, inform the developing process of a food safety policy, and help in harmonising trade and food safety interventions.
Ms Opendi also called upon Kampala Capital City Authority to start screening and testing individuals that vend food around the city.
She also said the National World Health Day celebrations will be held on April 9 in Agago District.
Dr Ben Manyindo, the executive director of Uganda National Bureau of Standards, urged farmers to observe good farming practices, by not drying their cereals on a bare ground if they are to avoid aflatoxins (mould growth), common in cassava from Eastern Uganda.
PREVENTION
To avoid food-borne diseases, World Health Organisation recommends the following: Keep clean (food safety, observe good sanitation and proper personal hygiene), separate raw food from cooked food, cook thoroughly, use safe water and keep food at low temperatures.
The numbers
2 million
Number of people in the country who were diagnosed with acute diarrhoea in 2012, according to the National Burden Food-Borne diseases Pilot Study Report.
10,000
Estimated number of typhoid patients treated before the Easter holidays in Kampala, according to the director of Health Services at Kampala Capital City Authority, Dr David Sseruka.
