Bernard Allen
Question:192 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the reason for the increase in cases of food poisoning from 448 to 1,235 between 1997 and 1998; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4814/00]
Vol. 514 No. 6
192 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the reason for the increase in cases of food poisoning from 448 to 1,235 between 1997 and 1998; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4814/00]
Under the provisions of the Infectious Diseases Regulations, 1981, a number of categories of food poisoning are statutorily notifiable by medical practitioners to the health boards. The health boards in turn make weekly returns of infectious disease notifications to my Department. The figures quoted by the Deputy refer specifically to the increase in food poisoning, bacterial other than salmonella.
Both globally and in Ireland there has been a trend towards an increase in the reporting of cases of food poisoning. The reasons for the increase in the number of reported cases of the condition referred to by the Deputy may be attributed to several factors, and I would like to outline some of those. First, with improved food-borne disease surveillance being carried out by the health boards, in co-operation with the National Disease Surveillance Centre and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, the figures are likely to increase in coming years rather than decrease. This is a trend not only for Ireland but is the case for many other countries. In this regard I am informed that the number of cases of food poisoning, bacterial other than salmonella, for the year 1999 is reported provisionally at 1,666. Second, we have seen over the past few years an increase in the reporting of food-borne illness because of increased consumer awareness. Consumers are now more aware of food-borne disease because of the educational consumer focused campaigns carried out by public health departments of the health boards, the food unit and the health promotion unit of my Department, and by the FSAI.