World health statistics quarterly. Rapport trimestriel de statistiques sanitaires mondiales
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Food safety is a complex matter that depends on a number of interrelated environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic factors. The purpose of epidemiology and surveillance is to define these factors, how they interact, and their relative importance in foodborne infections. The tools epidemiologists use to study foodborne disease include surveillance of specific infections in humans, monitoring of contamination with specific pathogens in foods and animals, intensive outbreak investigations, collecting reports of outbreaks at the regional or national level, and studies of sporadic infections. With sufficiently elaborate systems of surveillance and investigation, it is possible to provide quantitative risk data for foodborne diseases that will permit the wisest allocation of food safety resources.
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Available data indicate that pertussis remains an important disease during infancy and childhood, particularly among those who are inadequately immunized. Over the past 15 years, successful immunization programmes have been implemented in most countries in the world. Some problems have arisen in the industrialized world where pertussis had been well controlled previously. ⋯ All efforts should be directed to increase or maintain high immunization coverage with DPT immunization at the level of at least 90% in all districts. Surveillance of pertussis morbidity should be strengthened in all countries and ideally, pertussis should be a reportable disease. More information on the present epidemiological pattern of pertussis, especially age distribution of pertussis cases in developing countries, is needed to develop the policy of booster doses of DPT vaccine in children > 1 year.