Food poisoning: symptoms, causes and treatment

Food poisoning, also called foodborne illness, is the eating of contaminated food by the sick. Infectious organisms - including bacteria, viruses, and parasites - or their toxins are the most common causes of food poisoning.

Infectious organisms or their toxins can contaminate food at any processing or production site. Contamination can also occur at home if food is handled or cooked incorrectly.

Symptoms of food poisoning, which can begin within hours of eating contaminated food, often include nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Most often, food poisoning is mild and disappears without treatment. But some people have to go to the hospital.

Symptoms of food poisoning

Symptoms of food poisoning vary depending on the source of contamination. Most types of food poisoning cause one or more of the following symptoms:

Symptoms may begin within hours of eating contaminated food or may begin days or even weeks later. The disease caused by food poisoning usually lasts from a few hours to several days.

When do you have to go to the doctor?

If you experience any of the following symptoms, see a doctor.

• Often vomiting and inability to keep fluids down
• Bloody vomiting or stools
• Diarrhea for more than three days
• Extreme pain or severe abdominal cramps
• Mouth temperature above 100.4 ° F (38 ° C)
• Symptoms of dehydration - excessive thirst, dry mouth, little or no urination, severe weakness, dizziness or lightheadedness
• Neurological symptoms such as blurred vision, muscle weakness and tingling in the hands

Causes of food poisoning

Contamination of food can occur at any place of production: rearing, harvesting, processing, storage, transport or manufacture. Cross-contamination - the transfer of harmful organisms from one surface to another - is often the cause. This is especially tricky for raw, prepared foods such as salads or other products. Because these foods are not cooked, harmful organisms are not destroyed before eating and can cause food poisoning.

Many bacterial, antiviral, or antiparasitic drugs cause food poisoning. The following table shows some possible contaminants at which you may begin to feel symptoms and common ways the organism spreads.

Risk factors

Whether you get sick after eating contaminated food depends on your body, the amount of exposure, your age, and your health. High-risk groups include:

• Older adults. As you age, your immune system may not respond to infectious organisms as quickly and as effectively as it does when you are younger.
• Pregnant women. Changes in metabolism and circulation during pregnancy may increase the risk of food poisoning. Your reaction may be more difficult during pregnancy. Rarely can a baby get sick either.
• Infants and young children. Their immune systems are not fully developed.
• People with chronic illness. Chronic illness - such as diabetes, liver disease or AIDS - or receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer will reduce your immune response.

Complications of food poisoning

The most common serious complication of food poisoning is dehydration - severe loss of water and essential salts and minerals. If you are a healthy adult and you drink enough to make up for fluids lost from vomiting and diarrhea, dehydration should not be a problem.

Infants, elderly adults, and people with a weakened immune system or chronic illnesses can become severely dehydrated when they lose more fluids than they can replace. In that case, they may need to be hospitalized and given fluids into a vein. In extreme cases, dehydration can be fatal.

Some types of food poisoning can have serious complications for certain people:

• Listeria infection. Complications of Listeria food poisoning may be most severe in the unborn child. In early pregnancy, listeria infection can lead to miscarriage. Later in pregnancy, a listeria infection can lead to stillbirth, premature birth, or possibly fatal infection in the baby after birth - even if the mother has been only mildly ill. Infants who survive a listeria infection may have long-term neurological damage and delayed development.
• Escherichia coli (E. coli). Certain strains of E. coli can cause a serious complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome. This syndrome damages the lining of the small blood vessels in the kidneys, which sometimes leads to kidney failure. Older adults, children less than 5 years of age, and a weakened immune system are at higher risk of developing this complication. If you fall into any of these risk categories, contact your doctor if you have profuse or bloody diarrhea.

Prevention of food poisoning

Preventing food poisoning at home:

• Wash your hands, dishes and food surfaces often.
• Keep raw materials separate from prepared foods. When shopping, cooking or storing food, keep raw meat, poultry, fish and seafood away from other foods. This prevents cross-contamination.
• Cook dishes to a safe temperature. The best way to find out if foods are cooked to a safe temperature is to use a food thermometer. You can kill harmful organisms in most foods by cooking them at the right temperature. Cook the ground beef to 160 F (71.1 C); steaks, roasts and chops, such as lamb, pork and veal, at least 145 F (62.8 C). Cook chicken and turkey to 165 F (73.9 C). Make sure the fish and seafood are thoroughly cooked.
• Refrigerate or freeze perishable food - within two hours of purchasing or preparing it. If the room temperature is above 32.2 C, refrigerate perishable food within an hour.
• Defrost food safely. Do not defrost food at room temperature. The safest way to defrost food is to defrost it in the refrigerator.
• Throw it out if you are unsure. If you are not sure whether food has been prepared, served or stored safely, dispose of it. Food left at room temperature for too long may contain bacteria or toxins that cannot be destroyed by cooking.

Food poisoning is particularly severe and potentially life-threatening in infants, pregnant women and their fetuses, older adults, and people with compromised immune systems. These individuals should take extra precautions to avoid the following foods:

• Raw or rare meat and poultry
• Raw or undercooked fish or crustaceans, including oysters, bivalve molluscs, bivalve molluscs and scallops
• Raw or undercooked eggs or foods that may contain them, such as cookie dough and homemade ice cream
• Raw sprouts such as alfalfa, bean, clover and radish sprouts
• Unpasteurised juices and ciders
• Unpasteurized milk and milk products
• Soft cheeses such as feta, Brie and Camembert; blue wine cheese; and unpasteurized cheese
• Chilled pastes and meat spreads
• Uncooked hot dogs, lunch and deli meat

Diagnosis

Food poisoning is often diagnosed based on a detailed history, including how long you have been ill, your symptoms, and certain edible foods. Your doctor will also perform a physical exam to look for signs of dehydration.

Depending on your symptoms and medical condition, your doctor may perform diagnostic tests, such as a blood test, stool culture, or examination of parasites, to identify the cause and confirm the diagnosis.

For the stool test, your doctor will send a sample of your stool to a laboratory where a technician will try to identify the infectious organism. If the organism is found, the doctor is likely to notify the local health department to determine if food poisoning is associated with an outbreak.

In some cases, the cause of food poisoning cannot be identified.

Treatment of food poisoning

Treatment for food poisoning typically depends on the source of the disease, if known, and the severity of your symptoms. For most people, the disease heals without treatment in a few days, although some food poisoning may last longer.

Treatment of food poisoning may include:

Replacement of lost fluids. Fluids and electrolytes - minerals such as sodium, potassium, and calcium that maintain fluid balance in your body - that are lost from persistent diarrhea need to be replaced. Some children and adults with persistent diarrhea or vomiting may need hospitalization where they can receive salts and fluids intravenously (into a vein) to prevent or treat dehydration.

Antibiotics. Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics if you have a certain type of bacterial food poisoning and your symptoms are severe. Food poisoning caused by Listeria should be treated with intravenous antibiotics during hospitalization. The sooner treatment begins, the better. During pregnancy, rapid antibiotic treatment can help prevent the infection from affecting the baby; antibiotics do not help food poisoning caused by viruses. In fact, antibiotics can worsen the symptoms of certain viral or bacterial food poisonings. Talk to your doctor about the options.

Adults with non-bloody diarrhea who do not have a fever may be relieved to take loperamide (Imodium AD) or bismuth subsalicylate (Pepto-Bismol) medication. Ask your doctor about these options.

At home

Food poisoning often improves without treatment within 48 hours. Try the following to help you feel more comfortable and prevent dehydration during recovery:

• Let your stomach settle. Stop eating and drinking for a few hours.
• Try sucking on ice cubes or taking small sips of water. You can also try drinking clear soda, clear broths, or decaffeinated sports drinks. You can also try oral hydration solutions if you have severe dehydration symptoms or diarrhea. You will get enough fluid when you urinate normally and your urine will be clear and not dark.
• Probiotics. Your doctor may recommend trying probiotics. Ask your doctor before trying probiotics.
• Easy to eat. Gradually start eating mild, low-fat, easily digestible foods such as baking biscuits, toast, gelatin, bananas, and rice. Stop eating if nausea returns.
• Avoid certain foods and substances until you feel better. These include dairy products, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and fatty or flavored foods.
• Rest. Illness and dehydration can make you weak and tired.

Food poisoning is as symptomatic as any other stomach illness - this is how you avoid it in your home kitchen

Food poisoning is difficult to distinguish from common stomach disease.

The symptoms of food poisoning can vary depending on the cause. Common are stomach symptoms: nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain. Fever, for example, is also a common symptom, says Senior Inspector Elina Leinonen from Evira.

It can be difficult to know if it is food poisoning or other stomach disease.

For example, norovirus, which is a common cause of food poisoning, is also easily spread non-food and is quite similar as a disease, whether it is obtained from food or directly from another person.

Food poisoning is particularly difficult to verify if there is only one patient.

If several people have experienced the same type of symptoms at the same time, it can be identified as a possible food poisoning epidemic. However, even then, of course, it is still possible that the source of the infection is other than food.

It can only take hours or even weeks from eating spoiled food to the onset of food poisoning symptoms.

For certain pathogens, symptoms may appear within hours. Norovirus typically have a germination time of 12 to 48 hours, while many bacteria have several days. In some cases, it can take weeks for symptoms to appear.

It is also possible that a chemical substance causes irritation and symptoms as soon as the food has entered the stomach. In this case, the symptoms also stop as soon as the food has come out of the stomach.

"What happens at home may be set off as a common stomach disease"

Evira's food poisoning epidemic register records known and investigated epidemics that have been identified as food or domestic water. In recent years, about 40-50 food poisoning epidemics have been registered there per year.

It probably represents only a small part of all food poisoning. In addition, there are more doubts, but only those that can really be found to have spread through food or domestic water will be entered in the register, Leinonen says.

The food poisonings recorded in the register are most commonly from restaurants.

Maybe food poisoning becomes easier if you go to a restaurant and get sick after doing something funny in the home kitchen and stomach disease spreads in the family. Food poisoning at home may be acknowledged as a common stomach disease.

Processing errors are usually related to temperatures

• Bacteria and viruses that cause food poisoning and, less commonly, parasites and chemicals. There can be a variety of reasons behind them.
• Some products may initially contain a pathogen. For example, foreign frozen berries are recommended to be heated before eating due to the risk of the virus, Leinonen says.
• For some pathogens, food poisoning is the result of a processing error. The most common errors are related to temperatures. For example, food is cooled too slowly after preparation, or it is stored at the wrong temperature.
• Anyone suspected of food poisoning should contact the food control authorities of their municipality by telephone.
• The municipal supervisory authorities, together with health care, are the body that sets out to investigate a possible epidemic. Of course, you can also report your suspicions to, for example, a restaurant that you think has been poisoned.