Contaminated food and beverages are the new threat to the lives of VIPs. The Indian government may have reacted with disbelief and anger at the news that there is a new superbug, indigenous to India, but those dealing with VIP security in India have come to acknowledge that viruses and bugs are a growing threat to duteous performance of their task.

During the conference of the Directors General of Police (DGP) here on August 25-26, head of the elite Special Protection Group (SPG) BV Wanchoo made a presentation on VIP security. He outlined how global travel and unchecked food and beverages are increasingly being seen as a threat to VIP security. Frequent travel by VIPs, he said, made them especially vulnerable to the threat of unsafe food, either deliberately contaminated or inadvertently carrying sundry infections.

According to some police officers who were present during Wanchoo?s closed-door presentation, unsafe food and beverages were flagged as one of the greatest threats to VIP security not just in India but globally as well. ?The presentation made by Wanchoo made it very clear that he considered this the next big threat, of how bugs can travel through food and beverages served, to human body,? said one of the police officers. Even the routine check of the source of the food doesn?t automatically guarantee its safety.

Wanchoo suggested that an expert who could test the food and drinks for bugs could be made part of the entourage of SPG protectees to combat this threat. ?The food and beverages could be tested for any contaminants or pathogens,? said the officer.

Significantly, it was in January 2010, that the World Health Organisation (WHO) also rang alarm bells on contaminants and pathogens which a report said were a public health problem.

The report in fact, underlines that while ?many or most human infectious diseases? in recent decades have come from animals, the transmission of these infections has ?often been through food and food preparations?. Acute respiratory syndrome, mad cow disease and highly pathogenic avian influenza are three major examples cited.

The SPG?s task in this regard is to strengthen its surveillance and responsive capacity when it comes to the threat food terrorism can pose to VVIPs lives.

The 3,000-strong SPG is entrusted with the task of providing proximate security to VVIPs in India.

Though food-borne illnesses usually last for a brief period and the patient recovers after nausea, vomitting, abdominal pain, fever and fatigue, sometimes they can be lethal. These are usually caused by improper storage, preparation and handling of food, which makes it susceptible to bacteria and germs.