FOOD POISONING

Food Poisoning – Reasons
Food poisoning refers to poisoning that occurs due to eating foods contaminated with toxins or poisonous substances secreted by some bacteria. Food poisoning is more common in areas with poor sanitation or living conditions (often occurs in community feasts, cooked and served under unhygienic conditions or food stored under such conditions for several hours).

Food Poisoning - Occurance
Food or water can get contaminated due to its handling by a person infected with or carrying micro-organisms causing food poisoning. Improper cleaning and washing of fruits and vegetables, and improper cooking of food can also cause food poisoning.

Food Poisoning - Symptoms
Food poisoning generally occurs within 2 to 3 hours of eating or drinking infected food or water. The symptoms include nausea (a feeling of vomiting), vomiting, pain in the abdomen and diarrhoea. Other symptoms are fever, cold sweats, weakness, headache and dehydration.

Food Poisoning - Diagnosis
For diagnosis, the doctor reviews the symptoms, examines the patient and suggests laboratory testing of a sample of stools and the suspected food if available. A very important symptom for diagnosing it is that all the people who ate the same food get infected. In such cases, a careful analysis of food, to correlate symptoms to the food items consumed by those affected and those unaffected helps to pinpoint the most likely item which might have been infected.

Food Poisoning - Treatment
The treatment is mostly supportive i.e. treatment of dehydration and replacing salts. Some patients may need treatment of symptoms like drugs to treat vomiting. Occasionally antibiotics may be required if the organisms are demonstrated on laboratory examination; however most of the time these are not required because patients improve soon after initiation of supportive measures.The doctor may prescribe medicines such as metronidazole, diloxanide, fluroate or norfloxacin. All the medicines should be taken as prescribed by the doctor even after the symptoms are gone, as the infection may return due to the presence of the organism causing the disease in the body.Self care measures include drinking clean or boiled water with some salt and sugar at frequent intervals to prevent the patient from getting dehydrated because of diarrhea and vomiting.

Food Poisoning - Prevention
Drinking water should be clean and safe. Food should be kept covered while stored to avoid flies and insects from sitting on it. Buying food from roadside vendors should be avoided. Fruits and vegetables should be washed properly before eating. Food should be cooked properly.