As we here in Anguilla approach the August festivities, the number of cases of food poisoning appears to increase. Most often, food poisoning is mild and resolves without treatment, but some cases are severe, requiring hospitalisation.
What is food poisoning?
Food poisoning, also called food-borne illness, is caused by eating contaminated food. Infectious organisms — including various 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 point during its processing or production. Contamination can also occur at home if food is incorrectly handled or cooked.
Food poisoning is especially serious and potentially life-threatening for young children, pregnant women and their fetuses, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems.
What are the signs and symptoms of food poisoning?
Food poisoning symptoms vary with the source of contamination. Most types of food poisoning cause one or more of the following signs and symptoms:
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Watery diarrhea
• Abdominal pain and cramps
• Fever
Signs and symptoms may start within hours after eating the contaminated food, or they may begin days or possibly even weeks later. Sickness caused by food poisoning generally lasts from one to 10 days.
What causes food poisoning?
Contamination of food can happen at any point during its production: growing, harvesting, processing, storing, shipping or preparing. Cross-contamination — the transfer of harmful organisms from one surface to another — is often the cause. This is especially troublesome for raw, ready-to-eat foods, such as salads or other produce. As these foods are not cooked, harmful organisms are not destroyed before eating and can cause food poisoning.
Many bacterial, viral or parasitic agents such as E coli, salmonella, listeria and noroviruses cause food poisoning.
What are some risk factors for getting food poisoning?
Almost anyone can develop food poisoning. Whether you become ill after eating contaminated food depends on the organism, the amount of exposure, your age and your health. Some groups are at increased risk for getting food poisoning. These include the following:
• Infants and young children. Their immune systems have not fully developed
• Older adults. As you get older, your immune system may not respond as quickly and as effectively to infectious organisms as when you were younger.
• Pregnant women. During pregnancy, changes in metabolism and circulation may increase the risk of food poisoning. Your reaction may be more severe during pregnancy. Rarely, your baby may get sick, too.
• People with chronic disease. Having a chronic condition — such as diabetes, liver disease or AIDS — or receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy for cancer, reduces your immune response.
Prevention
There are several things you can do to decrease your chances of food poisoning. The following might prove helpful to prevent food poisoning at home:
• Wash your hands, utensils and food surfaces often. Wash your hands well with warm, soapy water before and after handling or preparing food. Use hot, soapy water to wash the utensils, cutting board and other surfaces you use. You should change cutting boards frequently.
• Keep raw foods separate from ready-to-eat foods. When shopping, preparing food or storing food, keep raw meat, poultry, fish and shellfish away from other foods. This prevents cross-contamination.
• Cook foods to a safe temperature. The best way to tell if foods are cooked at a safe temperature is to use a food thermometer. You can kill harmful organisms in most foods by cooking them at the right temperature. Ground beef should be cooked at 160 F (71.1 C), while steaks and roasts should be cooked to at least 145 F (62.8 C). Pork needs to be cooked to at least 160 F (71.1C), and chicken and turkey need to be cooked at 165 F (73.9 C). Fish is generally well-cooked at 145 F (62.8 C).
• Refrigerate or freeze perishable foods promptly. Refrigerate or freeze perishable foods within two hours of purchasing or preparing them. If the room temperature is above 90 F (32.2 C), refrigerate perishable foods within one hour.
• Defrost food safely. Do not thaw foods at room temperature. The safest way to thaw foods is to defrost them in the refrigerator or to microwave foods using the “defrost” or “50 percent power” setting. Running cold water over the food also safely thaws it.
• Throw it out when in doubt. If you are not sure if a food has been prepared, served or stored safely, discard it. Food left at room temperature too long may contain bacteria or toxins that cannot be destroyed by cooking. Do not taste food that you are unsure about — just throw it out. Even if it looks and smells fine, it may not be safe to eat.
When to seek medical attention
You should seek medical attention if you have severe signs and symptoms. If you have the following see your doctor as soon as possible:
• If you have severe diarrhoea (large amounts of loose stool every 1 to 2 hours) that lasts longer than 2 days if you are an adult.
• You have vomiting that lasts longer than 1 day if you are an adult.
• You are pregnant and believe that you have been exposed to listeriosis or toxoplasmosis.
• You have symptoms of mild dehydration (dry mouth, dark urine, not much urine) that get worse even with home treatment.
• You are not feeling better after 1 week of home treatment.
Treatment
Treatment for food poisoning typically depends on the source of the illness, if known, and the severity of your symptoms. For most people, the illness resolves without treatment within a few days, though some types of food poisoning may last a week or more. Treatment of food poisoning may include replacement of lost fluids to prevent dehydration. In a few cases antibiotics might be needed. Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics if you have certain kinds of bacterial food poisoning and your symptoms are severe. Food poisoning caused by listeria needs to be treated with intravenous antibiotics in the hospital.
Complications
The most common serious complication of food poisoning is dehydration — a severe loss of water and essential salts and minerals. If you are a healthy adult and drink enough to replace fluids you lose from vomiting and diarrhea, dehydration should not be a problem. Infants, older adults and people with suppressed immune systems or chronic illnesses may become severely dehydrated when they lose more fluids than they can replace. In that case, they may need to be hospitalized and receive intravenous fluids. In extreme cases, dehydration can be fatal.
Conclusion
Food poisoning is an illness caused by eating contaminated food. Most people get better without the need for treatment, but in some cases severe deydration can occur which can be life threatening. In most cases, food that causes food poisoning is contaminated by bacteria such as salmonella or Escherichia coli (E. coli), or a virus such as the norovirus. A number of preventative measures can help decrease your chances of getting food poisoning.
Ask Your Doctor is a health education column and is not a substitute for medical advice from your physician. The reader should consult his or her physician for specific information concerning specific medical conditions. While all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that all information presented is accurate, as research and development in the medical field are ongoing, it is possible that new findings may supersede some data presented.
Dr Brett Hodge is an Obstetrician/Gynaecologist and Family Doctor who has over thirty years in clinical practice. Dr Hodge has a medical practice in The Johnson Building in The Valley (Tel: 264 4975828).
