Critical Consumer Pat Sidley
WHEN an upmarket Johan-nesburg supermarket pulled all the chickens from its shelves it sparked a salmonella scare in the city.
An investigation into the matter revealed that Woolworths’ fridges were empty because various diseases had affected the fowls and the supermarket was waiting until the chickens reached a larger size before restocking.
The salmonella scare was just that — a scare. And there is the “normal” amount of the bacteria around for this time of the year. According to Johannes-burg’s City Health Department, salmonella is endemic in many rural areas and in the townships.
Salmonella includes many types of bugs. One of them causes typhoid (as occurred some months ago in Delmas). Another causes the more common type found in eggs, chickens, meat and other food. It causes upset stomachs, vomiting, a fever and is easily treatable. Doctors claim “it is self-limiting”, which basically means the bacteria leaves the body. However, this is not always the case and consumers should take heed of some basic advice which follows at the end of this column.
What proved to be truly alarming was the attitude of public health officials and experts regarding the incidence — and control — of salmonella.
An inquiry by this Critical Consumer elicited information about how health inspectors and environmental health officers go about their task of examining premises where food is sold, prepared and so on. This procedure would apparently reveal any problems from the time the chicken is slaughtered and sold to the stage it lands up on your plate in a restaurant or canteen. Officials do their inspections on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, so everybody presumably cleans up their acts on those days.
Another call drew the information that when there is an outbreak of food poisoning — such as the one at Wits Technikon a couple of months ago — a procedure is launched to find the source of the outbreak. Doctors, laboratories, hospitals and clinics are obliged to report a marked increase in salmonella poisoning to the local authority, so that an investigation can be launched.
Sounds good so far. Then it got bad.
“We are not a First World country, we are a developing country,” Dr Shan Naidoo, of Johannesburg’s City Health Department, reassured this Critical Consumer. And, he added, the trend is likely to be an increase in salmonella poisoning and other public health problems because of the demands for deregulation from the meat, milk and other branches of the food industry, the lack of education regarding health issues, poverty and bad hygiene in townships and on city streets.
And the ANC, in its agricultural document published shortly before the election, said it would not like too many sophisticated restrictions placed on impoverished people trying to get their food on to the market.
This attitude appears to permeate much of the thinking around public health policy. It accepts that salmonella is endemic in certain areas — and that there will be more of it.
Presumably, those of us living in urban areas, and fortunate enough to have had the attention of various health authorities, will now forfeit it because, in the jargon of public health fundis, “it is inappropriate to the conditions we find ourselves in at the moment”. Any ideologically pure consumers thinking this sounds reasonable should be aware it does not accompany any studied response on how to deal with existing health and hygiene problems in impoverished areas.
Well-placed public health sources say it is the rule, rather than the exception, that in the townships food is slaughtered, sold and prepared in the most unhygienic of conditions. There are no washing facilities, no refrigeration and, according to one source, there always has been bribery and corruption among the health inspectors and the food sellers in these areas.
Curing the ills of the health care system does not involve calling ourselves “Third World” or “developing” and not expressing any hope or desire to solve the problems. Spreading more evenly the ills is not going to help either.
If you gets salmonella poisoning:
* Drink as much fluid as possible. * Do not buy drugs from pharmacies to stop the diarrohea. * If the illness persists for more than a few days, or if a fever develops, get medical help. * Have a stool sample analysed. * Have the food analysed, then sue the manufacturer, seller and public health authority.
Maybe they’ll then find the imagination to deal with health issues properly.
To avoid the salmonella bug
* Wash hands and food before preparing. * Ensure the surface used for preparing food is clean. * Cook food well, particularly eggs, chicken and meat. This includes microwaves as they do not heat food uniformly or enough.