Guyana will be joining six other Caribbean countries as they keep pace with the world in undertaking a Burden of Illness (BOI) Study, as it relates to food borne diseases, which will facilitate better surveillance and guidance for prevention and control measures.

This was the pronouncement as Guyana’s BOI study was launched yesterday at a workshop at the Regency Suites Hotel where sensitisation was also done.

The initiative is a collaborative effort among the Ministry of Health, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC).

The BOI study will be conducted over the period August 2009 through 2010, as the burden and epidemiology of gastrointestinal and food borne disease as well as the priority pathogens (agents of disease) commonly transmitted by food is better understood.

As in Grenada, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Dominica and The Bahamas, the onus will be on the Ministry of Health to facilitate this study.

The BOI study is expected to be conducted in two components– the Population Survey-based component and the Laboratory Survey-based component.

Dr. Luis Seoane, PAHO/WHO Representative, Guyana, in his remarks, said that food borne diseases are among the main causes of morbidity, disability and mortality worldwide, and so the prevention and control of these diseases is a priority.

He noted that the recognition of this by the World Health Assembly resulted in a rigorous approach that saw the development of the burden disease initiative.

“The absence of a precise Burden of Illness estimate contributes to a low priority placed, in some countries, on public health surveillance and response to food borne diseases as well as the development and implementation of appropriate interventions to prevent disease,” Seoane posited.

To this end, he pledged an offer of any held needed for the successful conduction of the BOI study.

Dr. Lisa Indar, Manager, Food Borne Diseases, CAREC/ PAHO/ WHO, echoed this sentiment and added that in Guyana the knowledge of food borne disease is what and how many cases were reported.

Indar explained that the BOI study will give the Ministry of Health additional information to aid informed decisions.

She explained that once the BOI study is completed, health workers can collect the relative information, apply multiplying factors to that and arrive at the Burden of Illness for the specific disease, in this case food borne diseases.

“Food borne diseases is a global development issue,” she said.

However, she pointed out that eradication of food borne diseases would lead to eradication of poverty and child mortality, significantly, as food borne diseases contribute to both problems.

Indar furthered that the BOI Study will enable Guyana, among other things, to be able to:

* Get estimates that will aid decision making;

* Get a better understanding of the surveillance system and laboratories operations;

* Promote collaboration among sectors; and

* Implement prevention measures and exert some control over food borne illnesses.

Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy concurred with this and noted that the new information will allow the ministry to determine where limited resources should be allocated.

He added that the initiative was critical to improving the health of all, with long, healthy and productive lives as the ultimate goal.

The minister highlighted that a sector may have the finances, human resources and facilities to provide quality, but the information was a necessity.

He said collaborations are a must.

To this end, Ramsammy explained that the results of the BOI study should be augmented with:

* A strong and inflexible regulatory arm that will ensure the safety of the Guyanese people when it comes to regulations dealing with canned food products and imported food product; as well as

* Effective public awareness that will allow persons to understand that food borne diseases can be prevented more effectively if persons who are unwell submit stool samples for laboratory testing in case of H1N1 being developed.

Minister Ramsammy called for the cooperation of all levels to ensure that Guyana is able to develop the capacity to identify its Burden of Illness via the BOI Study on food borne diseases.