420,000 die from tainted food annually: WHO
�Young children account for nearly one third of those deaths�
AFP
Some 600 million people get sick from eating contaminated food each year, and around 420,000 die, the World Health Organization said yesterday, adding that young children account for nearly one third of those deaths, reports AFP from Geneva.
In its first-ever estimate of the impact of foodborne diseases, the UN health agency found that almost one in 10 people globally get sick each year from food contaminated with a range of bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins and chemicals.
Kazuaki Miyagishima, head of WHOs food safety division, stressed the importance of getting clear data on the problem.
Until now, we have been combatting an invisible enemy, an invisible ghost, he told reporters in Geneva, adding that he hoped that quantifying the toll of contaminated food would help mobilise countries to significantly boost food safety.
The report, which is based on analysis of data up to 2010, identified 31 different agents contaminating food and making hundreds of millions of people either acutely ill or injecting them with serious illnesses like cancer that may not surface until years later.
In addition to killing nearly half a million people each year, foodborne diseases are taking a significant toll on the quality of life of those who survive, the report said.
Each year, the global population as a whole loses a full 33 million so-called Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), or healthy years of life, it said.
Miyagishima said the numbers were very conservative, representing the minimum damage caused to humanity by contaminated foods.
Since foodborne pathogens take advantage of weak immune systems, young children are particularly at risk.
Children under the age of five make up only nine percent of the global population but account for nearly 40 percent of all illnesses linked to eating unsafe food and 30 percent -- 125,000 -- of all related deaths, the report said.
Foodborne diseases can cause short-term, albeit violent, symptoms like vomiting and diarrhoea, usually referred to as food poisoning, but can also cause long-term illnesses like cancer, kidney or liver failure, brain and neural disorders, it said.
Diarrhoeal diseases, often caused by eating raw or undercooked meat, eggs and dairy products contaminated with salmonella, E.coli or campylobacter bacteria, or the norovirus stomach bug, are by far responsible for most foodborne diseases.
Some 550 million people fall sick with food-related
