Health Ministry Encourages Public To Report Food-Borne Illnesses

The Ministry of Health & Wellness is urging members of the public to report food-borne illnesses to the relevant authorities.

Speaking with JIS News, Director, Veterinary Public Health, Ministry of Health & Wellness, Dr. Linnette Peters, said the Government is keen on increasing the public’s knowledge of their role in food safety, and reporting incidents of food-borne illnesses is crucial to this goal.

“We want to continue to improve on the reporting of food-borne illnesses, as we recognise that this is a weakness that persons who may have eaten and within hours they have diarrhoea, they do not necessarily associate their sickness with the consumption of food,” she added.

Dr. Peters noted that the gathering of this data from the report will also assist the Ministry to respond with appropriate measures.

“If this information is reported to the Ministry, we would really like to get a better picture of the food-borne illnesses status in Jamaica, so that we can plan and implement programmes accordingly,” she said.

Dr. Peters informed that citizens can report their food-borne illnesses to public facilities.

“We have sites all across the country and all the clinics and health centres are equipped with public health nurses that a report can be made to.  Samples can also be taken by health personnel so that the cause of the diarrhoea can be identified and we would be able to detect and acknowledge these reports, so the health centres are the main sites at which these are detected,” she said.