Epidemiological Behavior of Diseases Transmitted by Food, in a Department of Colombia, 2012-2015

Objective: The purpose of the study was to describe the behavior of diseases transmitted by food in the epidemiological period of 2012-2015.

Materials and methods: Descriptive, retrospective study, quantitative approach, non-experimental design; performed in 2,534 cases registered in the statistical database of a Departmental Health Secretary. Sociodemographic variables, food and causal agents involved in the diseases were taken into account; the information was analyzed with the epi info program, taking into account the respective ethical considerations.

Results: Show that two municipalities reported the highest number of cases, the representative age groups were between 5 -14 and 15-44 years old; Regarding sex, no important differences were evident; the food most involved in the individual, effects and outbreaks of foodborne diseases (FBD) was the coastal artisan cheese, water and by-products of rice and corn; the place where the majority of cases occurred were the houses of the studied population.

Conclusions: The main microorganism causing the poisonings was Escherichia Coli, followed by total coliforms, fecal coliforms and Salmonellas spp. The investigation concludes that there was no greater variability in the number of cases reported between the observed years, besides E. coli was the main causal factor.

Keywords: Epidemiological, Diseases, Transmission, Food.