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Background material by Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr. for Year 1 Semester 1 Biomed PPSD session on 06th October 2008.
Background
The Institute of Medicine organized a pot-luck dinner on the weekend to welcome new students and staff. To make the party more lively academic staff and students from the department of biology were also invited. Each invited person was free to bring any dish or drink. The chairman of the organizing committee had a previous bad experience when everybody brought salad so she did not want to take chances this time. She also ordered some food from a caterer. The institute was half empty the next Monday morning with many people calling in sick. Student lectures were cancelled that morning because the lecturers were sick. On subsequent days more people turned up for work as they overcame the symptoms of food poisoning. One week after the incident, Prof Omar decided to carry out an epidemiological investigation of the food poisoning episode and identify the food(s) that were/was the cause. He administered a questionnaire and got the following results.
Type of food | # People who ate | # reporting diarrhea and/or vomiting | ||||||
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Total | ||
Nasi Lemak | 20 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Nasi Goreng | 30 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Achar | 25 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | |
Mee Goreng | 40 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
Nasi Biryani | 50 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Salad | 70 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
Total | ||||||||
Discussion
- Identify the food(s) most likely to have caused diarrhea from the data provided and determine the most likely causative agent from the data provided;
- Describe preventive measures for this type of incidence;
- List and describe ethical obligations on food preparers to ensure safe and healthy food for general consumption.