Control of Food and Water Borne Diseases

Abstract

The importance of food and water borne disease control especially cholera outbreak has drastically increased in ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) context and a cause for concern of the Department of Disease Control (DDC), Ministry of Public Health (MOPH). Therefore, the DDC has strengthened Surveillance and Rapid Response Team (SRRT) and its network in every level of health system with the aim to effectively control the spreading of diseases. The control of food and water borne diseases focuses on 5 main health measures 1) case management (isolation, treatment and disinfection) 2) increasing host resistance to infection and/or illness and/ or death 3) reducing transmission of the pathogenic agents of the diseases in environment 4) controlling and/or preventing food and water borne diseases epidemic and 5) management of environmental sanitation and waste from cases during disaster. The effectiveness of SRRT’s food and water borne diseases control needs understanding of these control measures. SRRT needs to implement health measures through participation of all stakeholders such as local administration organization, village health volunteer, government agencies, private agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The collective implementation of those measures will contain the outbreak and prevent it from scaling up to the level of public health emergency. The impact of health measures will increase competency of Thailand’s food and water borne diseases control in the ASEAN Economic Community context.