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CATHERINE W GICHUKI
Doha
Qatar will launch its first-ever public health strategy in near future, a top official from the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has revealed.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a workshop on food poisoning, Director of Public Health HE Sheikh Dr Mohammed bin Hamad al Thani said the ministry has completed 90 percent of its targets in the National Health Strategy 2011-2016.
He said Qatar aims to achieve zero mortality from food poisoning and is working to find a way to respond quickly to food poisoning cases.
"This requires coordination between authorities such as the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, the Emergency Department, and Hamad Medical Corporation among others," he added. He said they plan to have protocols to deal with infectious diseases.
With the country is preparing to host 2022 FIFA World Cup, the country has to be serious about preventing incidences of food poisoning as many people will be coming to Qatar.
Dr Mohammed reiterated that they are stepping up efforts to make sure that food entering the country is safe and food prepared hygenically at restaurants and labour camps.
He said RMK, an international company, will work with MoPH in achieving this. MoPH will propose laws and acts to the Cabinet in the next two years regarding public health and food safety, he added.
The director of Public Health praised Qatar's high ranking among Arab countries in the health systems index. He said the achievements of Qatar's health sector were a result of collaboration between partners and sectors.
According to him, there are laws in place to ensure that food entering the country is safe. œNinety-nine percent of food that leads to food poisoning does not enter Qatar through mistake, it's because of wrong storage or use or approach by those in restaurants or labour camps, ? he said.
For his part, MoPH Director of Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control Department Dr Hamad Eid al Rumeihi said there is a registry for food poisoning incidence where they focus on registering each case. There were about 50 such incidences last year.
œWe are trying to improve our system. Our aim is to improve food safety in Qatar. One of the priority programmmes in 2017 is to improve food safety, ? he said.
Rumeihi reiterated that the MoPH was working with the Food Safety department to enhance their collaboration to routinely check the food items. œWe also increase awareness among food handlers about hygiene and encourage the public to report about violations. ?
He said they have a special joint team which responds quickly to any case of food poisoning. œOur food safety team goes to the spot, collects samples and sends them to the Central Food Lab to check if there is any violation. The new law also gives us authority to close any premises if there is violation. ?
Rumeihi said now MoPH has sufficient food inspectors. œFood inspectors mostly deal with food poisoning cases. The municipality does their routine checkup while we respond to the outbreaks, ? he said, adding that the aim is to make Qatar safe from food poisoning and set high standards for food safety to update our guidelines for ¨food poisoning.
The MoPH will also issue guidelines on dealing with food poisoning cases in Qatar in cooperation with the World Health Organization.
