Health promotions

Mosquitoes Control – Fight The Bite Campaign

Residents of Geraldton are encouraged to ‘Fight the Bite’ as part of a ‘Healthy WA’ campaign to reduce the mosquito population and the incidence of mosquito-borne disease. 

Everyone can help reduce mosquito numbers at home by ensuring their properties are free from open water sources such as guttering, pot plants, tyres and unmaintained ponds or pools.

You can also help to protect yourself by checking your fly screens are intact and by wearing long sleeve shirts and pants that are loose fitting when in areas of high mosquito activity.

Fight The Bite Campaign:  https://www.fightthebite.com.au/ https://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/Articles/F_I/Fight-the-Bite-campaign

Midges

People can often confuse midges with mosquitoes.

Biting midges are tiny flies, about the size of a pin head.  

While some varies of midges bite and can be irritating, they are not known to spread disease. 

To find out more about midges please see the following link: https://healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/A_E/Biting-midges

If you have any further questions please contact the environmental health team on 9956 6600.

Food Safety - Play It Safe Campaign

Food poisoning can be very serious, particularly for vulnerable sections of the community such as the elderly and children. Despite three-quarters of people thinking they handle food safely, the majority of food poisoning happens in our homes.

Ensuring you correctly prepare, cook and store food is the simplest way to avoid food poisoning at home, as it greatly reduces the risk of bacterial cross-contamination and inhibits bacterial growth.

The Play it Food Safe Campaign calls on people to ‘play it food safe’ and clean, separate, cook and chill when they prepare, handle and store food, to stop the spread of food poisoning bacteria.  It aims to reduce the number of food borne illness cases by changing behaviour and culture around food preparation and storage.

So far the campaign has highlighted some common mistakes made in the kitchen, leading to the following key messages:

  • Never wash raw chicken as this spreads bacteria around your kitchen that can make you sick.
  • Don’t let raw chicken juice contaminate other foods. Always wrap your chicken before storing it.
  • Separate raw chicken, meat and eggs from ready‑to‑eat food, like salads and fruit to prevent cross‑contamination.
  • Never wash raw eggs. Avoid bacteria getting inside the egg through the porous shell.
  • Always cook eggs until the yolk and whites are firm. If you use raw eggs in foods such as desserts and mayonnaise, refrigerate immediately.
  • Throw out food that has been left out of the fridge for more than 4 hours.
  • Put cooked food into the fridge as soon as it finishes steaming.
  • Avoid food being stored in the temperature danger zone (5°C to 60°C) as bacteria that cause food poisoning grows best at these temperatures.

Please contact the environmental health team on 9956 6600 if you require any more information or would like to be part of this campaign.

For further food safety tips, you can also visit healthywa.wa.gov.au/Safety-and-first-aid/Food-safety.

 

If you think you have falling ill after eating a meal at home and the symptoms are severe, or the person I’ll is young, old, immunocompromised seek medical advice immediately. If you think a certain food is to blame while eating out, keep the food wrapped in the fridge so it can be tested by an environmental health officer at the City of Greater Geraldton.

Reporting your illness allows environmental health officers to investigate food safety concerns and take action against those who break food safety laws. Your complaint may also help protect other people in the community from the same health and safety food risks.

 

If you have any further questions please contact the environmental health team on 9956 6600.