Estimating completeness of foodborne disease registration in North West Morocco

Abstract

This study aims to estimate the total number of poisoning cases and completeness of foodborne disease surveillance in the region of Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima in North West Morocco. This retrospective study was conducted to assess the completeness of food poisoning surveillance system in the Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima region over a three-year period from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2016. The data used for this study were obtained from two sources, including the national poisoning database of the Moroccan Poison Control Center (MPCC) and provincial hospital registries in the study area. The completeness of foodborne disease reporting was estimated using the capture-recapture method. During the study period, 235 cases of foodborne diseases were reported to the Moroccan Poison Control Center, 725 cases were notified to the provincial hospital registries and 98 cases were common to both sources. The estimated total number of poisoning cases was 1,739 (95% CI: 1,494-1,983). The completeness of foodborne disease surveillance for the national database of poisoning and hospital registries was estimated to be 13.5% and 41.7%, respectively. Improvement of the completeness of poisoning surveillance system is needed to estimate the true incidence of poisoning in Morocco.

Keywords

• foodborne diseases
• completeness
• morocco