TO MAINTAIN HYGIENE: Experts want an effective surveillance system, including a ban on the open sale of cut fruits.

Bangalore: Every time there is an outbreak of food and water-borne diseases during the summer and rainy season, the authorities are stirred into damage control to check the spread of such diseases. But prevention through long-term measures is the key for keeping diseases such as viral hepatitis, typhoid, gastroenteritis and cholera at bay.

The Task Force Report on Health and Family Welfare 2001 had suggested the need for a disease surveillance system so that there is concrete data on food and water-borne diseases. "The health system must know about every outbreak of food/water-borne infectious disease, for which purpose it must establish a systematic method to learn about its occurrence and its exact etiology and mode of transmission. For this it must establish a functional surveillance system and facilities for early outbreak control," the report says.

The disease surveillance system is more or less non-existent. Observers say the open sale cut fruits was just an example of failure of the system.

According to Thelma Narayan, Public Health Consultant, Community Health Cell, there is no proper surveillance system on outbreak of such diseases. "The public have to be kept informed about the possibilities of an outbreak and what can be done to prevent it. Moreover, all data regarding communicable diseases including areas that are prone to be affected, should be in the public domain so that people can act on it," Dr. Narayan told The Hindu .

"Most of the communicable diseases are preventable. If there is emphasis on sanitation and scientific disposal of garbage, outbreaks can be controlled to a large extent," P.S.V. Rao, consultant gastroenterologist and endocrine surgeon, said, and recommended periodic checks on the quality of water at roadside eateries and restaurants.

"There is no way a customer will know whether or not an eatery is using contaminated water. The food may be cooked but the water used to clean the plates and vessels may carry lot of germs," he pointed out.

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