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Biomedical subjects

M Abdussalam

Publications and source records attributed to M Abdussalam.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Food safety in the 21st century.

The global importance of food safety is not fully appreciated by many public health authorities despite a constant increase in the prevalence of foodborne illness. Numerous devastating outbreaks of salmonellosis, cholera, enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli infections, hepatitis A and other diseases have occurred in both industrialized and developing countries. In addition, many of the re-emerging or newly recognized pathogens are foodborne or have the potential of being transmitted by food and/or drinking water. More foodborne pathogens can be expected because of changing production methods, processes, practices and habits. During the early 21st century, foodborne diseases can be expected to increase, especially in developing countries, in part because of environmental and demographic changes. These vary from climatic changes, changes in microbial and other ecological systems, to decreasing freshwater supplies. However, an even greater challenge to food safety will come from changes resulting directly in degradation of sanitation and the immediate human environment. These include the increased age of human populations, unplanned urbanization and migration and mass production of food due to population growth and changed food habits. Mass tourism and the huge international trade in food and feed is causing food and feedborne pathogens to spread transnationally. As new toxic agents are identified and new toxic effects recognized, the health and trade consequences of toxic chemicals in food will also have global implications. Meeting the huge challenge of food safety in the 21st century will require the application of new methods to identify, monitor and assess foodborne hazards. Both traditional and new technologies for assuring food safety should be improved and fully exploited. This needs to be done through legislative measures where suitable, but with much greater reliance on voluntary compliance and education of consumers and professional food handlers. This will be an important task for the primary health care system aiming at "health for all".

Disease Outbreaks↗
PubMed1994

Food safety in primary health care.

Efforts to ensure food safety through legislation have been only partially successful, and the prevalence of foodborne disease is increasing in most countries. Health education on a large scale is needed to raise the level of public awareness of the factors leading to the spread of these diseases. The best way to do this is through the primary health care system, basing activities on both scientific knowledge and local food-related customs and behaviour.

Developing Countries↗
PubMed1993

Safety of street foods.

Street vendors supply large amounts of food at affordable prices, particularly in developing countries. It is clearly right to regulate this trade in the interest of safety and quality, but care should be taken that in so doing the availability and accessibility of produce is not diminished.

Developing Countries↗
PubMed1976

Brucellosis as a world problem.

Brucellosis is one of the most widespread and economically the most ravaging of zoonoses. The occurrence of the acute, often incapacitating infection in man caused by Brucella melitensis usually coincides with occurrence of the infection in sheep and goats. Well-known foci of this infection have been identified in the Mediterranean basin, Central Asia and Latin America. Recent investigations in parts of Africa and India have shown that the infection is much more widespread than was previously suspected and that more foci remain to be discovered by the application of laboratory methods in epidemiological investigations. Bovine infection has a wider distribution and is more important than infection of sheep and goats as far as economic losses are concerned. Although the infection has been reduced by control measures to a low level of incidence in some countries of Europe and North America, its incidence in other parts of the world has actually increased because of emphasis on increased animal production and aggregation under poor hygienic conditions. This is particularly the case with dairy production units which have developed around rapidly growing urban centres in many developing countries. Although human infection with B. abortus may be mild, it can cause troublesome and intractable illness. The economic ravages of bovine brucellosis are tremendous and the losses in Latin America and the USA alone have been estimated by their respective governments to be 700 million dollars annually. The world figure must be truly staggering. Swine brucellosis is largely a problem of the Americas although a few foci have recently been discovered in other parts of the world, notably in Europe and Southern Asia. In the Americas, swine infection is second only to bovine brucellosis in its economic importance. A large number of human cases of B. suis infection are detected every year in the endemic areas. Other forms of brucellosis, e.g. B. canis in dogs and B. suis, biotype 4 in reindeer, have a limited distribution and are responsible for only sporadic human infections. B. ovis of sheep is more widespread but is generally confined to sheep. Annexes 1 and 2 show the reported incidence of brucellosis in man and animals. However, the officially reported data are generally incomplete and the actual incidence must in most cases be much higher than is shown in these tables. FAO and WHO have been assisting countries in which brucellosis is endemic by organizing control measures, providing training and reference materials, and by focusing coordinated research on problems which arise in these programmes. Some of the highlights of this work are outlined in the following paragraphs.

Animals↗
PubMed1972

Research needs in leptospirosis.

Leptospirosis is a widespread infection of man and animals, and locally it assumes considerable importance as a public health and economic problem. It is an important occupational infection among persons working with animals or in environments that may be contaminated by infected animals. In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to this infection but efforts to control and eliminate it, especially from natural foci, are hindered by gaps in our knowledge. This memorandum is a review of recent progress and current problems in leptospirosis research, with special reference to taxonomy, epidemiological methods, and control measures. Certain aspects of the basic biology of leptospires that are relevant to these topics are also discussed.

Agglutination↗