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According to the Government's latest Weekly Statutory Notification of Infectious Diseases (NOIDs) Report, all registered medical practitioners in England and Wales have a statutory duty to notify their local authority or local Health Protection Team of suspected cases of certain infectious diseases. All laboratories in England performing a primary diagnostic role must notify UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) when they confirm a notifiable organism. UKHSA collects these notifications and publishes analyses of local and national trends every week. Furthermore when it comes to food poisoning, the frequency of this is very much under reported, as people often do not report to their GP when they have bouts of vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach cramps and nausea - all signs of food poisoning - and just wait until it passes; unless they are extremely ill. With many restaurants and take-aways not being inspected by local authority environmental health officers, and certainly not new ones for some time after opening, too many premises with the potential to cause illness due to contaminated food and dirty preparation and storage areas; are going unchecked and incidents of food poisoning increasing. One Health & Safety Consultant in the North West, found very disturbing practices in a number of popular restaurants in a popular area for tourists and weekend visitors shortly after the cessation of regular environmental health checks as a result of the drastic cutting of staffing levels, which included shocking conditions in both kitchens and food storage areas. The kitchen included having a pedal cycle propped up against a food preparation table with carrots and lettuce hanging over and touching the rubber tyres of the bike, pigeon droppings covering the floors of a basement around a number of fridges storing food and a chocolate cake on a plate on top of one of the fridges with the knife used to cut the cake left resting on the fridge-freezer's top! Not to mention wholes in walls where a major pipe entered into the building basement! Reports of rats were admitted to, but nothing done to plug the gap in the wall through which they entered the food storage area! With regard to Mumps and Tuberculosis, the problem over non-vaccinations is seeing these cases rising too. Worryingly, whilst extreme cases of food poisoning can be life-threatening; both Mumps and TB can be a greater risk to life in both young and old. Source: Gov.UK / Unionsafety / Food Standards Agency |
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The latest figures make for worrying reading, with major infectious diseases such as Mumps, Tuberculosis, and Food Poisoning being amongst the highest number of reported incidents.