According to a World Health Organization report (WHO) , foodborne diseases affect some 600 million people worldwide each year and around 420,000 die from them, almost a third of them young children.
In this first report on the subject released Thursday in Geneva, the WHO established that on average one in ten people falls ill after consuming food contaminated with 31 pathogens, bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins and chemicals.
“Until now, estimates on this problem have been vague and imprecise, obscuring the true human costs of contaminated food. This report puts that right”said Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO. “Knowledge of the pathogens causing the most serious problems according to the different regions of the world will allow the general public, governments and the agri-food sector to take targeted measures”.
“Based on what we already know, it appears that these diseases affect all people in the world, especially children under five and people in low-income areas”says Dr Kazuaki Miyagishima, WHO Director of the Department of Food Safety, Zoonoses and Foodborne Diseases.
The main foodborne diseases
Diarrheal diseases are responsible for more than half of foodborne illnesses, with 550 million illnesses and 230,000 deaths per year. Children are particularly sensitive to it, with 220 million patients and 96,000 deaths per year. Diarrhea is often due to eating raw or undercooked meateggs, fresh produce and dairy products contaminated with norovirus, Campylobacter, non-typhoidal salmonella and Escherichia coli.
Other food-borne illnesses include: typhoid fever, hepatitis A, Taenia solium (a tapeworm) and aflatoxins (produced by mold on cereals stored in poor conditions). But also diseases more common in low-income countries such as typhoid fever, cholera or infections due to E. coli.
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