World Health Day April 7

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Staff Reporter :
World Health Organisation (WHO) will observe the ‘World Health Day’ globally on April 7. The theme of the day this year is “Food Safety” while the slogan is “From farm to plate, make food safe.”
The main focus will be to demonstrate the importance of food safety along with the whole length of the food chain in a globalised world, from production and transport to preparation and consumption.
According to WHO, the new data on the harm caused by food-borne illnesses underscore the global threats posed by unsafe foods, and the need for coordinated, cross-border action across the entire
food supply chain. “Food production has been industrialized and its trade and distribution have been globalised,” says WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. “These changes introduce multiple new opportunities for food to become contaminated with harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemicals.”
Dr Chan added, “A local food safety problem can rapidly become an international emergency. Investigation of an outbreak of food borne disease is vastly more complicated when a single plate or package of food contains ingredients from multiple countries.”
Unsafe food can contain harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances, and cause more than 200 diseases — ranging from diarrhea to cancers. Examples of unsafe food include undercooked foods of animal origin, fruits and vegetables contaminated with faces, and shellfish containing marine biotoxins.
Some important results are related to enteric infections caused by viruses, bacteria and protozoa that enter the body by ingestion of contaminated food. The initial FERG figures show that there were an estimated 582 million cases of 22 different food borne enteric diseases and 351000 associated deaths.
They also showed that the African region recorded the highest disease burden for enteric food borne disease, followed by South-East Asia. Over 40 percent people suffering from enteric diseases caused by contaminated food were children aged under 5 years.
“It often takes a crisis for the collective consciousness on food safety to be stirred and any serious response to be taken,” says Dr Kazuaki Miyagishima, Director of WHO’s Department of Food Safety and Zoonoses. “The impacts on public health and economies can be great. A sustainable response, therefore, is needed that ensures standards, checks and networks are in place to protect against food safety risks.”
WHO is working to ensure access to adequate, safe, nutritious food for everyone. The Organization supports countries to prevent, detect and respond to food borne disease outbreaks — in line with the Codex Ailmentarius, a collection of international food standards, guidelines and codes of practice covering all the main foods.
Over 100 countries have reported using the WHO developed ‘Five Keys’ to Safer Food. As a result, thousands of food handlers, including consumers, are empowered to prevent food-borne diseases, make safe and informed choices and have a voice to push for a safer food supply.