Fatal rojak: Better feedback system needed
IT TOOK almost three days from the first reports of food poisoning from the Geylang Serai rojak stall on April 1 to officials closing the stall on April 4.
According to the report, 'Hospitals and GPs have system to track outbreaks' (April 8), it was only at 10pm on April 3, after doctors at Changi General Hospital had noticed a surge in patients with similar symptoms of food poisoning, that the Ministry of Health (MOH) was informed of this outbreak.
MOH has asserted that there is an 'established system of surveillance and reporting of mass food poisoning cases'.
Unfortunately, it appears this system was neither fast nor effective enough to nip this outbreak in the bud. A major flaw is that it relies on individual doctors to spot trends before reporting to MOH. If 10 patients go to 10 different doctors or hospitals, how can any trends be spotted?
It is possible to develop a system to alert the authorities to food poisoning outbreaks. It will require multi-agency coordination and investment in technology.
An Integrated Food Contamination Reporting System could provide all doctors with a Web-based interface to report all cases of food poisoning they treat. The report could be as simple as stating who was taken ill, what the suspected food was, when the incident took place and where the stall is located. Consumers who fall sick after eating food could also file a similar report. The system will also make it easier for the authorities to contact victims in their investigations.
Once the reports are entered, the system can analyse the data and sound the alarm when a trend is detected. The alerts could be sent to MOH, the National Environment Agency and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority for coordinated action.
Gerald Giam
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=27027.1
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