Swine Flu and Food Safety

For over a week now, the news have been reporting swine flu outbreak in Mexico and everyone else seemed bothered on their safety to food consumption. As food enthusiast, I could not also find serenity while the rest of world is in uproar. I am very much saddened about what is happening right now, the world with its wonder and beauty is getting too difficult to deal with for human's existence.

In an apparent attempt to douse mounting fears over the “swine flu" virus, the Office International des Epizooties on Tuesday declared that the said global health problem could not yet be considered a pandemic, much less an outbreak.

But looking at the “pandemic chart" of the World Health Organization, the swine flu scare had already prompted international health authorities to raise the global pandemic alert to Phase 4.

This means that the current situation is just barely two notches away from a “pandemic state" or Phase 6.


Important Events:

Mexico

Everyone told Maria del Carmen Hernandez that her kindergartner's illness was a just a regular cold. But it seemed like the whole town of 3,000 was getting sick.

As early as February, neighbors all around her were coming down with unusually strong flu symptoms — and the caseload kept growing. When state health workers came to investigate March 23, some 1,300 people sought their medical help. About 450 were diagnosed with acute respiratory infections and sent home with antibiotics and surgical masks.

Five-year-old Edgar Hernandez was still healthy then. Hernandez wanted to keep him home from school so he wouldn't get sick, but her husband said, "We can't be afraid of what might or might not happen."

Then he came home with a fever and a headache so bad his eyes hurt. She took him to a clinic, and after a few days of antibiotics, he too recovered.

No one told Hernandez that her son had become Mexico's earliest confirmed case of swine flu until the Veracruz governor helicoptered in on Monday. But Edgar's case confirmed for residents what they already believed: their hillside town is ground zero in the epidemic.

Local health officials and Federal Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova downplay claims that the swine flu epidemic could have started in La Gloria, noting that of 35 mucous samples taken from respiratory patients there, only Edgar's came back positive.

World Health Organization

In Geneva, the World Health Organization issued a phase 4 alert - the first time it has raised the pandemic threat level since the system was established in 1999.

Level 4 means sustained human-to-human transmission has begun and containment is no longer possible. Five means the virus is widespread, and phase 6 is a full-blown global pandemic.

Philippines

MANILA – Siyam sa 12 bansa na tinamaan ng nakamamatay na swine flu virus ang pinagkunan ng karne ng baboy ng Pilipinas noong nakaraang taon, batay sa talaan ng Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS).

Sa datos na nakuha ng GMANews.TV sa BAS, lumitaw na umabot sa 85, 531 metriko tonelada (MT) ng karne ng baboy ang inangkat ng Pilipinas sa 24 bansa.

Sa naturang bilang, 83 porsyento o 70,900 MT ang galing sa siyam na bansa na tinamaan ng virus: United States (26,274 MT); Canada (20,536 MT); France (8,672 MT); Germany (6,521 MT); South Korea (5,138 MT); Spain (3,487 MT); Great Britain (151 MT); Brazil (97 MT); at New Zealand (24 MT).

Pinakamarami sa siyam na bansang nabanggit o 30 porsyento ay nanggaling sa US. Sumunod ang Canada (24 porsyento), France (10 porsyento) at Germany (8 porsyento).

Panglima naman ang South Korea (6 porsyento), sumunod ang Belgium (5 porsyento), Spain (4 porsyento), Denmark (3.8 porsyento), Netherlands (2.8 porsyento) at Australia(1.7 porsyento).

Kabilang sa mga inangkat na bahagi ng karne ng baboy sa ibang bansa ay mga frozen swine, hams, shoulders and cuts, pork bellies, fore-ends, swine liver, offal, bacon, dried pork skin, sausages at luncheon meat.

Palawakin ang ban

Bunga ng pagkalat ng virus na pinapaniwalaang nagmula sa Mexico, nagpatupad ang Department of Agriculture (DA) ng total ban sa pag-angkat ng mga karne ng baboy sa US, Canada, at Mexico.

Ngunit posible pa umanong madagdagan ang mga bansa na makakasama sa ban dahil nadadagdagan din ang mga bansa tinatamaan ng virus, ayon kay DA Secretary Arthur Yap nitong Martes.

Bukod sa US, Canada at Mexico, may naitala na rin umanong kaso ng swine flu virus sa Spain, New Zealand, UK, France, Israel at South Korea.

Sa isang pahayag ng Animal Health Organization o ang Office International des Epizooties (OIE), ang virus ay naipapasa ng tao sa tao sa pamamagitan ng pagbahing at pag-ubo. Wala naman indikasyon na makukuha ang virus sa pagkain ng karne ng baboy.

“The better side of prudence tells us to impose the ban. But we assure consumers that Philippine pork is safe to it. We have not contacted the virus yet and we hope it will not reach our country," ayon kay Yap.

Upang mapunan ang mawawalang suplay ng karne ng baboy mula sa ibang bansa, sinabi ni Davinio Catbagan, director ng Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), na kukuha sila ng suplay ng karne ng baboy sa Mindanao. - GMANews.TV

What is Ahead?

Having told all these things, is food safety now a commodity?