Contaminated food, water-borne diseases kill 1.25 lakh children every year

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 20

As many as 1,25,000 children below five years of age are dying from food and water-borne diseases every year.

This was stated by Prof Rakesh Sehgal, head, department of medical parasitology, PGIMER, during the third international workshop on zoonotic water and food-borne parasites on Wednesday.

In his address, Professor Sehgal laid emphasis on inculcating good hand hygiene practices in childhood. An increase in international travel and food trade have exposed more people to the risk of such infections,” he said.

Professor Sehgal added that as per the WHO estimates, one in 10 persons fell ill from eating contaminated food every year and 4,20,000 die as a result of it.

In his concluding remarks, he discussed the risk of contracting diarrhoea due to eating undercooked or raw meat, eggs and dairy products. He concluded by saying that a majority of food-borne illnesses occur in developing nations but these could be prevented by eating healthy and well-cooked food besides maintaining good hygiene.

The workshop has been organised in collaboration with the department of food safety and infection biology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norway.

Prof Lucy Robertson from Norway discussed the concept of one health, one planet. She held a discussion with the participants on the topic “Zoonosis – The Veterinary and Medical Perspective”.

During next two days, group discussions will be held with regard to the situation in India.