GENEVA – The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that every day, an estimated 1.6 million people become sick from eating unsafe food.

Children under the age of 5 carry 40 percent of the foodborne disease burden, Francesco Branca, head of nutrition and food safety at the WHO, told a UN press briefing in Geneva on World Food Safety Day.

Risks posed by unsafe food could rapidly evolve from a local problem into an international emergency, Branca said as he stressed that food safety hazards do not recognize borders.

Humanitarian crises in many parts of the world drive food insecurity and compromise food safety.

He urged governments to ensure that food safety is clear in their national action plans for health security and that the risk communication plans are updated and move towards integrated surveillance systems for animal, environmental, and human health.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sees safe food as “fundamental” to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a senior food safety officer told the briefing.

Markus Lipp added that safe food is also one of the prerequisites to fulfill FAO’s strategic plan to enable better production, nutrition, the environment, and lives.

“When food is produced and traded in a safe and sustainable agrifood system, it contributes to a healthy life and improves sustainability by enabling market access and productivity, which drives economic development and poverty alleviation, especially in rural areas,” Lipp said.

“In particular, improved food safety will safeguard public health and reduce child mortality,” he said, as children under 5 carry the highest burden of foodborne diseases.

(ia/mnm/Source:Anadolu)

By Junex Doronio

AS MILLIONS OF PHILHEATH (Philippine Health Insurance Corporation) members were affected by the data breach in the system of the state insurer, this time the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) gave a confusing statement, saying that it was the Confucius group — not Medusa — that uploaded a copy of over 600 gigabytes of files.

The copy was reportedly uploaded to a website and a Telegram channel after 4 p.m. on October 5, two days after the deadline for a payment of about $300,000 or approximately P17 million, ransom expired.

DICT Secretary Ivan Uy said the hackers may sell the leaked information to scammers and phishers considering that the perpetrators were not able to get the money they asked for.

“They will try to monetize the information by selling to scammers, to phishers para gamitin ‘yung data nila (to use their data),” he said.

On the other hand, DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Dy said their analysis showed that there were no remnants of the Medusa malware in the members’ database.

Uy further said that investigators are still trying to identify if the hackers are Filipinos or foreigners.

“Sa tingin ko naman ‘yung local hindi sila maglalakas loob dahil mahahabol natin sila. Nasa loob ng ating jurisdiction,” he quipped.

Earlier, a video of the leaked information showed photos, bank cards, and transaction receipts of the victims, among others.

The DICT said that although the transaction data of some PhilHealth members were leaked but it assured the members’ database was not affected by the cyberattack. (ai/mnm)