Surveillance

To create a coherent, effective and dynamic all-island food safety system, a comprehensive and integrated approach to foodborne disease is required. safefood has a general responsibility to promote cross-border co-operation in the microbiological surveillance of foodborne diseases. In collaboration with other agencies, safefood identifies priorities for the development of surveillance and will establish a forum for the exchange of information.

As part of this function, safefood will access, analyse and publish surveillance data held by agencies in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Promoting harmonisation in the development of surveillance systems, including IT solutions, will form part of this work.

List of projects

Study of Infectious Intestinal Disease in the Community - Determining Disease Burden and Calibrating National Surveillance Systems in the Island of Ireland 04-RESR-12

Overview
This study examines prospectively the burden and causes of Infectious Intestinal Disease (IID) (based on microbiological confirmation) in the population and presenting to General Practitioners (GPs) in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and comparison with data from National Surveillance Systems in ROI.  The study will be carried out in parallel with a UK wide study, conducted in collaboration with the UK Food Standards Agency.  safefood is funding an increase in the UK study sample in Northern Ireland (NI) and adding a Republic of Ireland study to allow the creation of independent surveillance pyrmaids of Infectious Intestinal Disease in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The additional sample in Northern Ireland will be carried out by the Clinical Epidemiology and Public Health Unit of the University of Manchester with arrangements as per the ‘main UK study’.  Arrangements for the conduct of the study in the Republic of Ireland are outlined below. These arrangements are identical to the UK study where possible but have been adapted where necessary for ROI circumstances

Co-ordinating Researcher: Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP),

Collaborating Researchers: Mr. Fionan O'Cuinneagain, Chief Executive ICGP

Start Date: 14/04/2008
End Date: 13/04/2009

Funding Agencies: safefood

Development of a training pack to allow GP’s to develop their role in the prevention and control of food-related disease outbreaks. 04-RESR-12

Safefood has recognised that gastroenteritis is a huge community burden accounting for 3.2 million new cases each year or 8,800 per day.  The safefood study ‘Acute Gastroenteritis in Ireland, North and South – A study of General Practitioners’ found that it is also a common problem in the primary care setting accounting for almost 1 in every 20 consultations.  A key conclusion of that survey was the realisation that there was a critical provision to encourage General Practitioners (GPs) to develop their role in the prevention and control of food-related disease outbreaks.  This project will develop a training programme for GP.s on the clinical management of gastroenteritis.  This will provide a mechanism to update GPs on the clinical management of gastroenteritis.  This will provide a mechanism to update GPs about food borne illness and to provide practical and concise information about diagnosis, treatment and notification.  The key aims are:
• To improve treatment practices of GPs especially in relation to antibiotic and anti diarrhoeal use
• To provide guidance to GPs on exposure history in gastroenteritis and food poisoning
• To develop GP awareness of their role in prevention of disease – hygiene, safe food practices, hand washing, advice on sickness leave
• To support the development of patient information leaflets
• To provide guidance on criteria for stool sampling
• To improve GPs understanding of the notification system

Researchers: Professor Philip Reilly, RCGP, Mr Fionan O’Cuinneagain, ICGP

Funding Agencies: safefood

Economic impact of gastroenteritis in Ireland (2004-2006) 03-RESR-018

Building on the findings of the recent report on 'Acute Gastroenteritis in Ireland, North and South: a Telephone Survey', this project will assess the economic impact of gastroenteritis across the island of Ireland taking into account the burden on individuals, families, informal carers, primary care and hospital services. This will be achieved by carrying out: a study in general practices to provide data to improve estimates of overall numbers of cases and patterns of different pathogens in primary care; a study of treatment and costs of treatment in primary care; a survey of families of patients with gastroenteritis to assess impact on individuals, families and informal carers; and a study of hospital treatments and associated costs for people with gastroenteritis drawn from hospital admission data.
 

Collaborating Researchers: Dr Charles Normand, Prof. Jenny Roberts
 
Start Date: 01/06/2004
End Date: 30/04/2006
 
Funding Agencies: safefood

It has been increasingly recognised that noroviruses (previously known as Norwalk-like viruses or small round structured viruses) are a major cause of gastroenteritis causing large outbreaks of infectious intestinal disease in a number of settings. The overall aim of the project is to carry out surveillance of norovirus outbreaks on the island of Ireland and to link available epidemiological and molecular data on norovirus outbreaks in a common database. This data will be used to review evidence for different transmission pathways e.g. person-to–person, foodborne. If food sources are suspected epidemiologically, available foods implicated in norovirus outbreaks, such as seafood will be tested for noroviruses.
 
Co-ordinating Researcher: Dr Maureen Lynch

Collaborating Researchers: Dr Suzie Coughlan, Prof Seamus Fanning, Dr Margaret Fitzgerald, Prof William Hall, Dr Paul McKeown, Dr Brian Smyth

Start Date: 01/07/2004
End Date: 01/12/2005
 
Funding Agencies: safefood

Campylobacters are the most common bacterial cause of acute gastroenteritis in the developed world (Friedman et al. 2001). On the island of Ireland there are approximately 2,500 confirmed cases of campylobacteriosis per year. However, the true burden of Campylobacter infections is thought to be much higher, a point of view supported by such surveys as the safefood acute gastroenteritis telephone survey in 2003. In particular, the epidemiology of Campylobacter infection is still poorly understood. This project will involve the collection of detailed clinical and microbiological information on cases of Campylobacter infection in order to generate hypotheses as to potential risk factors for infection. Food, animal and human sources of Campylobacter will be targeted. This project will bring together the Public Health Medical Practitioners, Clinical/Food Laboratory Personnel, Veterinary Health Specialists and Food Safety research expertise to address the growing issue of campylobacteriosis in Ireland.
 
Co-ordinating Researcher: Dr Declan Bolton

Collaborating Researchers: Prof Seamus Fanning, Dr Maeve Henchion
Ms Vera Nicholson, Dr Paul Rooney, Professor Patrick Wall, Dr Paul Whyte
 
Start Date: 01/03/2005
End Date: 01/03/2008
 
Funding Agencies: safefood

Gastrointestinal symptoms in Ireland, North and South – a survey of general practitioners. 01-RESR-123

This project involved an all-island survey of 1,200 general practitioners to examine the burden of gastroenteritis in general practice.  It also set out to examine the attitudes towards and practices in the management  and prevention of gastroenteritis, particularly relating to food-borne illness.  The study also aimed to describe GPs views on the surveillance and notification of certain areas of acute gastroenteritis.  The report of this research is available on the safefood website at www.safefoodonline.com.

Researchers: Dr Margaret Fitzgerald, HSE- Eastern Region, Elaine Scallan, FSAI, Dr Derval Igoe, HPSC, Dr Leslie Daly, UCD, Dr Dominique Crowlet, UCD, Dr Claire Collins, UCD, Tom Robinson, FSA-NI, Dr Brian Smyth CDSC-NI

Acute Gastroenteritis in Ireland, North and South- a telephone survey (2001-2003)

This project involved a telephone survey to investigate the epidemiology of self-reported gastrointestinal symptoms, in terms of incidence, duration and seasonality.  This project also aimed to determine the socio-demographic profile of those who reported illness, in order to to determine the characteristics and risk factors with a view to prevention and health promotion policy.  This report was co-funded with FSAI, HPSC in collaboration with UCD, CDSC-NI and FSA-NI.

 Researcher: Dr. Margaret Fitzgerald, HSE-Eastern Region