Over 1 million suffer from food borne diseases in Zambia annually – FAO

FAO food and safety officer, Masani Tekeuchi

One Million, six hundred and thirty nine thousand people suffer from food borne diseases in Zambia annually, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has disclosed.

FAO food and safety officer, Masani Tekeuchi has told Q-News that four hundred and twenty thousand (420,000) people die from the same diseases, out of six hundred million people affected globally.

Ms.Tekeuchi says the figures from Zambia and other parts of the world are mainly attributed to contaminated water and unsafe nutrition.

She explains that these statistics have a huge impact on the economy as people tend to be counterproductive.

She says there is urgent need for nutrition safety sensitizations to curb such occurrences especially in children under the age of five who are the most vulnerable to diarrheal diseases.

Ms Tekeuchi states that diarrhea kills over two thousand one hundred and ninety five under-five children every day, globally.