Introduction to Food Poisoning
Food poisoning is a common problem that is caused due to overeating or contaminated food. Generally, it is not a serious problem and most of the people cure it without any treatment.
Mostly, food poisoning is caused due to bacteria like salmonella, E.coli, and the virus-like norovirus.
The Signs & Symptoms of Food Poisoning
All the signs and symptoms of food poisoning start within a day after taking contaminated food. It may start within a few hours and it may take a few weeks. Following are some important symptoms of food poisoning:
- Appetite loss
- Nausea
- Diarrhea containing mucus or blood
- Vomiting
- Weakness in the body
- Fever or high temperature
- Stretching muscles
- Chillness
Mostly the symptoms take a few days to get normal.
What should you do?
Mostly the people don’t need any type of treatment to cure food poisoning. They can recover from the problem easily while sitting at home. Though, there are a few situations when you should go to the GP for the treatment. In order to get treatment, you should keep on taking fluid to avoid dehydration. Don’t forget to take too much water intake during food poisoning.
You can take small and light meals when you sense okay with your health like the crackers, rice and bananas.
What are the conditions in which you should see GP?
The patient should go to GP if:
- Food poisoning symptoms are very severe for an example, if you are unable to take the fluid because of frequent vomiting.
- If your food poisoning symptoms don’t get improved after some days.
- If you are older than 60 years
- If you are pregnant
- If the patient is a young child
- You are having severe symptoms of food poisoning that are rapid heartbeat or dehydration.
In these cases, the GP may require a Stool test to analyse the condition and then prescribe different antibiotics. They may also recommend you to get admit in the hospital so that they can look after you more closely.
What are the conditions in which the food is contaminated?
The food can be contaminated at any of the production process stages for an example, the food can be spoiled:
- By not preparing the food completely
- By not cooking the food thoroughly
- By leaving the food uncooked at the warm temperature.
- By not heating the food that is previously cooked
- By touching the food material with dirty hands
- The expired food material
- The cross contamination between different food materials.
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