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With more than 50 participants that pertain to the National Government, Health Territorial Entities, and other public institutions as, for instance, the National Health Institute (INS) and the National Institute for the Surveillance of Drugs and Food (INVIMA); the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Ministry of Health and Social Protecction, with the support of the Panamerican Health Association (OPS), the National Workshop on "Methodology of the Disease Load due to Foodborne Diseases (FBDs)" started, and it aims to strengthen the national system for the management of the innocuousness of foods, motivating the development of the institutional ability to determine the disease load due to the FBDs.
The event has been thought as a space for reflecting on one of the most important current public health problems at a world level: the PBDs. These diseases have increased due to the growing industrialization and commercialization of foods, the quick urbanization related, increasingly, with a more frequent cooking of foods outside of the household, the new production technologies, and the appearance of new pathogens or of pathogens that are resistant to antibiotics. Also, we must add to what we have mentioned the deficient hygiene practices when handling, storing and preserving foods along the food chain. This scenario poses enormous challenges for the public health authorities and demands the implementation of effective measures for the management of the innocuousness of the foods under the perspective of the hazards analyses, in order to control and reduce the food hazards and to prevent the Foodborne Diseases (FBDs).
In Colombia, according to the epidemiologic reports of the INS, in 2010, 11,563 cases of FBDs involved in 761 outbreaks were notified, and in 2001, 13,914 cases involved in 871 outbreaks were notified. This, in comparison with year 2010, represents an increase by 14.4% in the notification of outbreaks.
According to Gustavo Mosquera, the person in charge of the carrying out of the Workshop that is a part of the agreement MinSalud-FAO UTF/COL/039/COL; this encounter is the first one, about this topic, that is held in Colombia, and it will mark the start of a new stage for the innocuousness of the foods and the protection of the public health: "We are sure that the workshop will generate awareness in the institutions of our country and it will strengthen the surveillance and the food innocuousness management system in order to guide the decision making, and supervise and evaluate the measures and the cost-effectiveness of the interventions on the food innocuousness."
Tuesday December 18, 2012/ FAO.
http://www.rlc.fao.org
