ABSTRACT
The systematic reporting of foodborne diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean was launched in 1994, when the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) implemented a regional information system for the surveillance of outbreaks, called SIRVEETA (Sistema Regional de Información para la Vigilancia de las Enfermedades Transmiti-das por los Alimentos) (1). Until then, data on outbreaks, when existing, were scattered in a number of hardly approachable local documents, journals, magazines, and proceedings of meetings or congresses.
