All You Need to Know about Symptoms of Food Poisoning

Food poisoning is an acute state of emergency occurs after consumption of contaminated food. The symptoms of food poisoning generally occur 6 hours to 7 days after taking any food contaminated with bacteria or viruses. Depending upon the contaminant, the symptoms vary. This is a very common disease and affects 1 out of five people every year. According to CDC, there are 76 million food poisoning cases every year of which 325,000 patients require hospitalization and there are approximately 5000 deaths in a year. This is endemic in every part of the world and more common in developing countries. Here we shall discuss the common symptoms in detail.

• Nausea and vomiting – depending upon the level of endotoxin and exotoxin present in the contaminated food, the symptom vary from intense nausea or frank vomiting for several times. If there is corrosion of the intestine or rupture of the small blood vessels which reach nutrition to the walls of intestines, the vomiting may be mixed with blood. Depending upon the organism, the vomiting may be regurgitating or projectile.

• Diarrhea – diarrhea is the hallmark of food poisoning. Depending upon the incubation period of the organism present, the diarrhea starts within 6 hours to 24 hours. Again, if there is corrosion of the intestinal wall, stool may be mixed with blood. Frequently the bleeding occurs in the upper GI tract and the blood corpuscles are denatured by gastric acid present in the food. Therefore, the stool in food poisoning is dark colored. The consistency of stool varies, depending upon the invading organism. Stool in bacterial food poisoning is thick and sticky; but in case of viral diarrhea, it is watery. Bacterial food poisoning gives out foul smelling stool. Sometimes there is abundant pus cells present in the stool.

• Abdominal cramps – abdominal pain is frequently present. The toxins liberated by the pathogen irritate the nerve ending present in the intestinal wall. There is dull aching pain, mostly around the flanks. There are pain free stages in between (abdominal colic). This occurs as the cramps occur in a hollow viscus like small or large intestine.

• Fever – toxins produce fever. Depending upon the nature and level of toxin, the temperature may rise from 38 degree Centigrade (100.4 deg F) to 40 degree Centigrade (105 deg F). Fever may or may not be associated with chill and rigor (mimicking the symptoms of malaria). There is enough prostration. Fever may subside with medication or involuntarily after a couple of hours.

• Dehydration – combined action of vomiting, diarrhea, fever, prostration and sweating will lead to dehydration. The level of dehydration (mild to severe) depends upon the water expelled from our body. The patient feels thirst all the times. The eyes will be shrunken. Lips and tongue will become dry. Abdominal skin pinch will roll back slowly.

The commonest agent for food poisoning is Salmonella. Approximately USD 1 million is disbursed annually for the treatment of this disease alone in the US. Other causative agents are cholera virus, shigella, staphylococcus, E. coli, streptococcus, B. cereus, C. botulinum etc. All these can produce food poisoning and the severity varies according to the pathogen.