Love Ramirez
IHP 330 Principles of Epidemiology
Southern New Hampshire University
October 3, 2021
Final Milestone Two
Population
In the early-mid 1980s, "Salmonella was recognized as a pathogen of public health
concern in the Caribbean. The bacterium, which causes acute gastroenteritis, had infected many
residents, causing a large number of illnesses and a substantial economic burden" (n.d. 2019)
But this issue received little attention because of resource constraints and the cause of salmonella
infection remained unknown during that time.
In the year 1990, the Salmonella virus outbreak raised concern in the Caribbean due to
the increased cases of diarrhea among the locals and tourists staying at luxury hotels in the
region. Between 1998 through 1999 a case study was conducted on the population of Tobago and
Trinidad to determine the cause of the virus affecting the people. They screened the occupants
for different types of Salmonella infections such as Enteritidis, Typhimurium, and so forth. Age,
diagnosis month, and food consumption were guidelines they considered. To control the
outbreak, they performed studies to find out where, when, who, and how it started.
Social and behavioral determinants
"Social determinants are the conditions in the environments where people are born.
live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and
quality-of-life outcomes and risks" (n.d,2021).One of the social determinants is lack of
education or training. This is important to ensure proper handling of food is done properly when
it is prepared for consumption. They needed to be educated on the illness itself, what causes
salmonella infection, how to prevent it, and practice safety measures to properly handle food.
The farmers needed to be educated on proper cleanliness as well. They had no official training on
cleanliness and they needed to be trained on the importance of safety precautions. A second
determinant is due to the society or population because they were responsible for preparing foods
being consumed. Their upbringing, how they live has a major impact on their health and well.
being. Another determinant is the location of farms where the food originated from. The ten egg.
producing farms that were selected were located mainly in Trinidad and Tobago and the climate
there is tropical with a dry and rainy season. Six out of the ten farms had dirty nesting boxes,
liter surfaces were wet and rodents and flies were found which raises sanitary issues.
Disparities
One of the disparities is the safety breach of the handling of the eggs between the selling
of the eggs and them being laid. The farmers responsible for maintaining the farms did not quite
adhere to the safety measures to ensure the animals were free of diseases. Reporting the time of
illnesses is also a disparity to consider. There was big lack of public health education and
communication between the public health official and laboratories. It took 56 days to report the
cases to CAREC according to the information. The longer they waited to report the issue, the
more cases were