Kancheepuram, Cuddalore selected for pilot study
Two districts in Tamil Nadu — Kancheepuram and Cuddalore
— have been selected for a pilot study on screening food-borne
diseases. All systems will be in place within a month, and screening
will begin.
This modest exercise is part of a
bilateral agreement between the United States and India to participate
in a Global Disease Detection Program (GDD). The GDD is the principal
and most visible programme of the Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention, Atlanta, CDC) to develop and strengthen global capacity to
rapidly detect, accurately identify, and promptly contain emerging
infectious disease that occur internationally.
P.Gunasekaran,
Director, King Institute of Preventive Medicine, Guindy, says in case
of an outbreak in these two districts, food samples will be collected by
the Primary Health Centres, and sent to Madras Medical College
(Referral Centre). The positive samples will then be sent to King
institute (Reference centre), for confirmation.
Subsequently,
further tests will be done at the National Institute of Cholera and
Enteric Diseases, Kolkata. Likewise, Quality control samples will be
received by the King Institute from Kolkata will be processed and sent
to the eight referral centres in Tamil Nadu. King Institute, which has
been a centre for food-borne pathogen detection for over 50 years now,
has been selected as a key partner in the Global Foodborne Network – GDD
programme.
“The King Institute has contributed
considerably towards active screening of Salmonella and Cholera, food
samples and human specimens, and that is one of reasons that we were
chosen to participate in the programme,” Dr. Gunasekaran says.
“There
have been a large number of food borne outbreaks reported from various
states of India. The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme has
documented at least 255 food-borne disease outbreaks,” Dr. Gunasekaran
explains.
“However there is very little data on the
causes for the outbreaks. This can be improved by setting protocols for
collecting sample methods and testing at the reference centres,” he
says.
To effectively detect the diseases and their
causes, infrastructure should be strengthened and health staff trained
specifically on these aspects.
The CDC, the GDD
Program and the WHO in India, according to him, are collaborating on the
area of Food Borne Diseases in Tamil Nadu, especially on in building
resources, including human resources at the State. Training programmes
are being organised on laboratory diagnosis and epidemiological
investigation of food-borne diseases.
The commonest
causes of food-borne infections are pathogens like Salmonella, Vibrio
cholera, and bacillus cereus. The symptoms of food poisoning are
vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, and dehydration.
“These
are common, or expected symptoms, but the clinical state will change
depending on the severity of infection,” Dr. Gunasekaran explains.
