How to distinguish food poisoning from stomach disease?

The stomach circulates and vomits, but is it due to spoiled food or something else? Is it possible to distinguish food poisoning from ordinary stomach disease?

In winter, various stomach ailments turmoil. How do you know if it’s stomach disease or food poisoning?

The origin of the disease can be difficult to determine because the symptoms are so similar.

Both experience vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and abdominal pain. In addition, there may be a fever.

When did the symptoms start?

When suspecting infection of a particular foodstuff, it may be helpful to consider the germination time.

The meal caused by food poisoning is often the last time it was eaten.

Symptoms caused by food poisoning often begin a couple of hours after eating a meal, usually less than a day after eating contaminated food.

The incubation time is 1 to 3 days for viruses and 2 to 5 days for bacteria.

In Norovirus, the incubation period is 12-48 hours.

Symptoms of both stomach disease and food poisoning may include nausea and vomiting, abdominal cramps, and watery diarrhea.

In food poisoning, vomiting and abdominal pain may be particularly severe.

Were you the only one who got sick?

If no one else who has eaten the same food has fallen ill, it is more likely that it is some other butt.

The most common source of food poisoning is contaminated drinking water, poorly cooked food, lettuce stored for several hours, or milk-based food.

Bacterial infections that cause food poisoning, unlike viral infections, do little to spread from person to person unless hand hygiene is extremely poor.

Instead, an epidemic can start in one person if he spreads bacteria in the food when he puts it in the food.

Norovirus is also easily spread through the hands because only a few dozen viruses are needed for infection.

Norovirus epidemics have been caused, for example, by frozen berries imported from abroad, which have already been contaminated in the country of origin.

Make it easier

No matter how bad the disease comes from anywhere, in terms of healing, the treatment is similar.

Adequate hydration is important for the diarrhea and vomiting. Dehydration must be compensated as it occurs.

This can mean drinking several liters a day.

Even those who vomit a lot should try to drink small amounts of fluids a few spoons at a time. From the beginning it is good to get some salt as well. Even if the diarrhea is profuse, food is absorbed from the intestines almost normally.

An easy way to get a sufficient amount of salt is to mix 1 teaspoon of salt and 10 teaspoons of sugar in a liter of water. Ready-made diarrhea drinks are also available from pharmacies.

Vomiting is usually unable to eat or eating can cause stomach cramps.

It is advisable to let your stomach calm down and start eating carefully.

Choose small meals that are easy to digest and that are liquid or spongy. For example, mashed potatoes, porridge and juice soups pamper a sore stomach.Seek medical attention for these symptoms:

Seek medical attention for these symptoms:

According to the Finnish Food Safety Authority's website, food poisoning usually goes away fairly quickly, but it can sometimes cause serious and long-term illnesses or consequences, especially for people at risk.

Groups at risk include children under school age, pregnant or breastfeeding women, the elderly, and people whose immunity has been reduced due to a serious illness.

You should see a doctor if your diarrhea is severe or if your stools are bloody. High fever, severe fatigue and dryness of the mucous membranes, and confusion due to dehydration are also reasons to see a doctor.

In a child, high fever diarrhea requires a medical examination. If you suspect you have received food poisoning, contact your local health inspector.

If the suspect food has been bought at home from a shop or restaurant, for example, and there is still it left, it can be submitted to the municipal food laboratory for examination.

Food poisoning is a sudden intestinal inflammation caused by food or water. It is most commonly caused by a virus (e.g., noro), a bacterium (e.g., Salmonella), or a toxin produced by a bacterium, a toxin. In addition, food poisoning can be caused by chemicals, fungi, plants, parasites, or animals. The most common route of infection is carelessly cooked, preserved, produced, or served food.

Symptoms usually begin within a day of exposure, but later for some bacteria. Symptoms of food poisoning include diarrhea, stomach cramps, malaise and vomiting. It can sometimes be associated with a high fever.

Food poisoning usually heals rapidly within 1-3 days.

Self-care

The most important and primary form of treatment is hydration. You should drink several liters of different fluids a day, albeit often and in small amounts at once. Salty fluids should also be drunk throughout the day so that the body’s salt balance is not affected.

Easily digestible and light food should be eaten, although it can cause more stomach twitching. Food is absorbed from the intestines almost normally despite heavy diarrhea. Even a couple of days of fasting is not a disadvantage, as long as hydration is provided by varied and energetic drinks (dilute juices, water, tea, berry soups, meat, and vegetable broths). The liquid is always absorbed.

Milk-based, caffeinated, and sweetened beverages are NOT recommended. Likewise, energy drinks should be avoided.

The pharmacy provides diarrhea drink powders that are easy to prepare at home. Alternatively, you can make your diarrhea drink: Mix 1 liter of fresh juice (preferably orange juice) + 1 liter of water + 1 teaspoon of salt. The drink’s natural sugar helps in the absorption of salt and water.

Particular attention must be paid to getting adequate fluids for the elderly and children, as they do not always know how to express a feeling of thirst. A darker color of urine than normal indicates dehydration.

To prevent food poisoning, attention should be paid to good hand hygiene and kitchen hygiene. Care must also be taken when considering the correct storage and handling temperatures for food and storage and handling locations. Attention should also be paid to food preservation labeling.

When to contact a health care professional?

Individuals who have been advised to contact a healthcare professional because of an underlying illness or medication should follow the instructions they receive.

You should contact your healthcare professional if

If diarrhea and vomiting persist for more than a week and the fever lasts longer than four days, it is advisable to seek the advice of a healthcare professional.

If a large number of people in the area have the same symptoms, you may want to contact your health center by phone to map out a possible epidemic.

The self-care instructions have been produced in collaboration with the Health Library

Monitoring and occurrence of food poisoning

Municipal epidemic investigation teams report suspicions of food and water-borne epidemics to the joint registry information system (RYMY) of THL and the Finnish Food Safety Authority (until 2019, called the Finnish Food Safety Authority, Evira). THL was in contact with the municipal investigation team for 10 suspicion reports. In addition, several other clusters of intestinal infections were identified. The Food Agency also monitors the prevalence of microbes that cause disease in humans in animals and food, and the susceptibility of their bacteria to antibiotics. According to monitoring reports, Finnish food-producing animals are "cleaner" than animals from most food-importing countries. Although food hygiene has improved and food and aquatic epidemics have become less common, industrial production and efficient distribution of food have increased the risk of large-scale food poisoning epidemics in particular.

Epidemics of food or water and their suspicions are reported to the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) approximately 50-100 annually. In 2018, there were 100 notifications. In 2017, about half of the epidemics were caused by norovirus. Different strains of salmonella and Yersinia caused smaller clusters. Four clusters caused listeria (a total of 38 cases). Two epidemics had been obtained from the water: a borehole and a swimming pool. Both water epidemics were due to norovirus. EHEC caused 124 cases of the disease, and among them was one small cluster where, however, the contaminated food could not be secured. In addition, several other clusters of intestinal infections were identified. In 2018, two domestic water epidemics were reported, involving a total of 470 people. In another, the causative agent was borehole water contaminated with norovirus. In August-September 2018, cryptosporidiosis infections increased. In the hospital districts of Vaasa and Southern, Central and Northern Ostrobothnia: 84 cases were reported to the Infectious Diseases Register.

The largest epidemic of drinking water in Finland is the Nokia water epidemic in 2007. It affected diarrhea and nausea in 6,500 people, 1,200 doctor visits, and 200 hospital visits. The epidemic was due to the mixing of sewage with drinking water. Several pathogens were found, the most important being norovirus and Campylobacter, but the protozoan giardia was also involved. The largest norovirus epidemic in recent years was in 2016 on a cruise ship. It affected 250 people. In 2016, there was also one major norovirus epidemic from tap water, with 400 exposed to contaminated water.

The exact number of epidemics caused by bacterial toxins is not known, because the toxins are rarely searched for in food and cannot be detected by tests on patients. The most dangerous is the paralysis caused by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, botulism. It usually comes from vacuum-packed food products. It is not found even every year in Finland.

Infection

The most common source of food poisoning is contaminated drinking water, poorly cooked food, or a salad or milk-based food stored warm for several hours (Table ). Food-producing animals, vegetables and berries can become contaminated during their production if impure feed or water is used to feed the animals or irrigate the plants. For example, norovirus epidemics have been caused by frozen berries imported from abroad, which have already been contaminated in the country of origin, and yersinia infections have been caused by carrots. Listeria have been obtained especially from vacuum-packed fish products.

Bacterial infections that cause food poisoning, unlike viral infections, do little from one person to another because the hands do not have the amount of bacteria needed to infect them, unless hand hygiene is extremely poor. Instead, the source of an epidemic can be one person if he or she is a cook and bacteria get out of hand and multiply in the heat of it. Norovirus is also easily spread through the hands because only a few dozen viruses are needed for infection.

Epidemic detection and prevention

When suspecting infection from a particular food or place of food, it is helpful to consider the incubation times of the diseases. If the disease follows a ready-made poison in food, this delay is usually only hours, from viruses 1 to 3 days, from bacteria 2 to 5 days (longer with listeria) and from protozoa a couple of weeks or more.

If you suspect that you are infected with a particular nutrient, water source, or place to eat and you know there are several affected, it is a good idea to report it to a health center, even if you do not need to seek treatment. The health center and the local municipal epidemic investigation team can take steps to identify a possible source and stop the epidemic. Its announcement will, if necessary, initiate joint actions with the Department of Health and Welfare and the Food Agency. If the disease seems to have started from a restaurant meal, it is also a good idea to inform the restaurant so that immediate action can be taken there independently.

The prevention of food poisoning is based on regular monitoring of the cleanliness of food-producing animals and foodstuffs and water hygiene inspections. Another cornerstone is hygiene in the preparation and preservation of food, with particular emphasis on the so-called to the cold chain. There are precise instructions for this for commercial kitchens. In addition, there are specific screenings and inspections for salmonella for those who handle perishable non-prepacked foods or are involved in the treatment or care of particularly vulnerable individuals.

Symptoms of intestinal inflammation

Diarrhea is always associated with diarrhea. The "official" definition of diarrhea is at least four loose stools of water per day or three in eight hours. The stool is usually so watery that if it is placed in a container, it settles into its shape. Diarrhea is often associated with stomach cramps, especially in viral diarrhea and in diseases caused by a ready-to-eat bacterial toxin, nausea and vomiting. Sometimes it can be accompanied by a high fever. Infection with EHEC is sometimes associated with heavy intestinal bleeding and, in severe cases, kidney damage. In Listeria food poisoning, diarrhea is often absent and the symptoms of sepsis (see sepsis ) predominate.

Self-care for food poisoning

The cornerstone of the treatment of all diarrheal and vomiting diseases is the replacement of dehydration as it occurs (see Tourist diarrhea ). This can mean drinking several liters a day. Even those who vomit a lot must constantly attract small amounts of fluids. From the beginning it is good to get some salt as well. Even if the diarrhea is profuse, food is absorbed from the intestines almost normally.

Eating does not aggravate the disease, but can cause stomach cramps or vomiting can prevent eating. There is no harm in a couple of days of fasting as long as an energy-rich drink is taken care of. The fluid is always absorbed, and the fluid leaving in diarrhea is not the one you just drank, but the active secretion from the gut.

If you can’t eat, an easy way to get enough salt (especially sodium and potassium) is to make a “home-made diarrhea drink”. In it, the whole juice ("fresh juice", preferably orange juice) is diluted with the same amount of water, and half a teaspoon of table salt is mixed in a liter of this drink. The drink’s natural sugar helps in the absorption of salt and water. Ready-made diarrhea drinks, the so-called replacement solutions are also available from pharmacies.

If the diarrhea is moderate, drinking is carried out according to thirst. In the elderly, the feeling of thirst may be gone, and therefore special care should be taken with their drinking. Over-the-counter diarrhea medicines should be used with caution, not at all in young children.

When to treat?

If diarrhea is severe or is associated with a high fever or a large amount of blood in the stool, seek medical attention. Severe fatigue and persistent dryness of the mucous membranes, as well as confusion due to dehydration, especially in the elderly, are also topics for going to the doctor.

Treatment of intestinal inflammation

Fluid therapy and other self-care are the cornerstones of food poisoning treatment. Medical help is rarely needed, and then the cause of diarrhea can affect. The role of the doctor is described in more detail in the disease-specific articles (links in the table ). The pathogen is usually determined by bacterial culture of feces (see Bacterial samples) or by detecting the virus in a fecal sample. Blood culture can also be performed in patients with a high fever. Based on the doctor's examination and blood tests, a decision is made on possible drug treatment.

Symptomatic Campylobacter inflammation is treated with an antibiotic (macrolide antibiotic), rarely when the cause of the disease becomes known during the symptom. Salmonellosis is treated with antibiotics only in more severe cases. In EHEC infections, the antibiotic can even be a disadvantage. Sometimes, rarely, a patient needs to be hospitalized for “dripping” to correct a fluid deficiency. Lactobacilli or the yeast preparation Saccharomyces, the so-called probiotics, there is no benefit in the treatment of food poisoning.