Friday, October 28, 2011
Georgia: anthrax case discovered?
According to 1TV a 39 year old man is undergoing medical treatment at Tbilisi Hospital of Infectious Diseases with diagnosis of “Siberian Ulcer”. Siberian Ulcer is one of several colloquial names used to describe anthrax.
“The man was infected while buying the meat in the Gurjaani market.” Thankfully the man went to hospital in as soon as the symptoms became apparent and doctors claim that his health condition is satisfactory.
There was a similar case in Armenia several years ago when a 47 year old resident of the village of Akhuryan was transferred to the Gyumri clinic after being diagnosed with “Siberian ulcer”. The resident had bought the meat from the Akhuryan market.
We call on the appropriate authorities and health organizations to conduct a full and transparent investigation into the possible causes of the current infection to ensure that the source of the infected meat is identified and that the health of the general public protected.
Diseased animals can spread anthrax to humans, either by direct contact (e.g., inoculation of infected blood to broken skin) or by consumption of a diseased animal’s flesh.
Food safety is of critical concern in Georgia where food safety standards are poor to non-existent which hampers Georgia’s export efforts and creates an ever-present danger to the health of the general public, with recent cases of both rabbit and swine fever being reported in recent times. In fact the African Swine Fever outbreak of 2007 remains a serious problem throughout the North Caucasus and has spread into Russia.
In response to this concern the Georgia Food Safety Improvement Project began in 2010. This project is spearheaded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and is partly funded by BP and its partners, and the Austrian Ministry of Finance.
The number of food-borne disease outbreaks of all types in Georgia has been increasing recently with a particularly significant increase in cases of bacterial food poisoning: some 2,035 cases in 2007, up from 408 reported in 2004.
RD 17:34:57