Common food-borne illness outbreaks on the rise, as Metro North Public Health Unit works to crack the case
Dr Smith works at Metro North Public Health Unit and is part of a team investigating food-borne illness outbreaks.
If you’ve ever had that dreaded feeling that something you ate was not quite right, only to have your fears confirmed when violent illness presents hours later, you’re not alone.
In fact, Metro North Public Health Unit investigates a food-borne illness outbreak every couple of weeks – with statewide cases of gastrointestinal disease such as Salmonella and Campylobacter on the rise compared to last year.
Food-borne illness investigations are one of the few events that bring the full unit together, with teams from epidemiology, communicable disease, and environmental health each playing an important role in cracking the case.
Dr James Smith from Metro North Public Health Unit says that while the broader team work closely to solve these cases, they strongly rely on intel from the public.
“Outbreaks themselves are fairly common, but we count on the public coming forward to tell us and that is where we will look at your meals for the previous five days. It’s not just your lasts meal, as sometimes people think,” he said.
“Our ‘epi’ team will collect all the info on those who became sick, and then our environmental health officers will undertake site visits and get samples as well as looking a food storage and preparation processes to work out what’s happened.
“Then the team will work with our helpful labs to look at those samples to confirm the exact cause of illness and link it back to the investigation.”
Once the case is cracked, the team will work with the food provider to educate them on what has happened and how it can be prevented to better prevent future outbreaks.
While thousands of Queenslanders will become unwell due to eating contaminated food each year, most will not need hospitalisation and can be treated at home.
Some people will have more severe symptoms or may be more affected by illness and will need hospital treatment.
Anyone who suspects they have become unwell from eating from a food vendor or at an event should contact the Metro North Public Health Unit to support investigation and preventing someone else from falling ill.
Report a possible food-borne illness outbreak by calling: (07) 3624 1111