A study of recorded cases of foodborne diseases at Hyderabad during 1984 and 1985.
Foodborne diseases are a health hazard and a cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Surveillance of foodborne diseases is neglected in India as in most developing countries. A study of case reports for 2 years in a referral hospital is reported. Most of the outbreaks (88%) were found to involve 2-10 persons. About 52% of those affected were found to be below 14 years of age. A seasonal character was observed with more outbreaks being recorded in summer months. Twenty-three per cent of the incidents were observed to occur at home. The predominant symptom in these outbreaks was vomiting with or without diarrhoea. In about 38% of the cases, the vehicle of transmission was not mentioned while in the recorded instances it was stale food (19%); biryani (14%), usually meat preparation with rice; stale biryani (11%) or milk-based sweets (9.5%). The establishment of a National Foodborne Disease Surveillance system is suggested.
Rao
R N
RN
Food and Drug Toxicology Research Centre, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, India.
Sudhakar
P
P
Bhat
R V
RV
Gupta
C P
CP
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D005506:Food Contamination; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012621:Seasons; D014839:Vomiting