450 daily cases of infectious intestinal disease in Malta

Abstract

An improvement of hygiene methods and sanitation as well as early management, have greatly reduced the deaths caused by this illness in developed countries like Malta, however not the same can be said for developing countries. In these countries we are still seeing a number of deaths especially in children. Furthermore although the number of deaths have been radically reduced in developed countries, the burden of illness from sickness remains high. Most of the information on the number of cases of infectious diseases in many countries comes from notifications from doctors and laboratories. However this does not include those persons who develop the illness and do not go to a doctor, and cases where the doctor does not suspect that food is implicated. Hence information on the number of cases occurring in many countries is not known. An estimate of the frequency of this illness is important to be able to control this illness.