AVOID BACTERIAL FOOD POISONING

Food poisoning is defined as acute illness caused after consumption of any contaminated food, It is usually  not serious and individuals can get better after a short time of infection, However, it can cause many gastrointestinal symptoms, Some times,  cause other neurological symptoms.

There are different types of food poisoning could be occurred, may be due to contamination of food by chemicals like mercury, copper, lead and arsenic that usually follows the ingestion of canned food, contamination of food by viruses like norovirus or may be due to hyper sensitivity of certain individuals to certain kinds of food categories known as food allergy that usually follows the ingestion of certain proteins like milk, eggs and fish and sometimes may be as a result of contamination of food by bacteria. However, bacterial food contamination still the first leading cause of most food poisoning outbreaks occurred world wide.

Symptoms & signs:    

Symptoms of food poisoning are usually begins after a short period of ingestion of the contaminated food, theses symptoms include the following:

1. Gastrointestinal pain & abdominal cramps.

2. Nausea and frequent vomiting.

3. Diarrhea, usually has mucous or blood.

4. Fever in some cases.

5. General weakness.

6. Muscle pain.

7. Loss of appetite.

All of these symptoms are often disappeared within few days, all you have to do is to stay at your home for resting and recovery, drink plenty of water and warm drinks to avoid dehydration and eat small amount of light meals until you feel more better.

 Causes of food poisoning:

Food can be contaminated at different stages of  its preparing, cooking and storage.

1. Under cooking of foodstuffs especially meat and chicken as they are very important sources of many bacterial contamination as salmonella and e.coli. 2.  Cross contamination, is often occurs between raw uncooked meat and vegetables, equipment and board when using the same board for chopping the food where bacteria present in raw meat and chicken can be transferred to other chopped foods especially if you do not wash the same board before each use.
3. Consuming foods that are previously contaminated by an infected person.
4. Keeping raw meat at the upper shelf of the refrigerator may cause dripping of few blood drops on the lower shelf where  other foodstuffs are kept and this is considered a dangerous cause for food poisoning outbreak.  
5. Improper storage of foods, especially the cooked and raw foodstuffs, food should be always kept and stored in the refrigerator at a temperature less than 5 C  in order to be kept uncontaminated by any bacterial or even fungal infection.

N.B. Bacterial food poisoning is usually classified to food infection & food intoxication.
Bacterial food infection is happened after ingestion of viable bacteria that are rapidly multiplied in your gut and causes the previously mentioned signs of poisoning and toxicity like salmonella, shigella, e.coli, vibrio and campylobacter.
While the bacterial food intoxication is happened after ingestion of already formed toxins by bacteria, this type of bacterial poisoning usually has short incubation periods, signs of toxicity may appear within 2-4 hours according to type of infected bacteria. they are like clostridium species and Staphylococci bacteria.

Most prevalent types of bacteria causes food poisoning:

1. Salmonella:

Infection by salmonella bacterium is usually started after 12- 36 hours of ingestion of contaminated food and lasts for 2- 7 days. this type of bacteria is often present in raw, improper cooked or under cooked foods especially meat products, eggs, milk, cream and other dairy products.

2. Shigella:

It is usually started within 7 days after ingestion of contaminated food and lasts for other 7 days. this type of bacteria is usually occurred through fecal and oral contamination of an infected person to foods. shigella bacterium is found in chicken, turkey, milk, tuna, shrimp, fruits and beans.

3. Escherichia coli (E. coli):

It is normally found in the intestine of  human and animals and is considered harmless. In few cases, specific types of e. coli like O157:H7 strain can induce sever poisoning signs like bloody diarrhea and sever abdominal pain. Infection is usually started after 2-5 days and lasts for about 3-8 days, most infected individuals are feeling good after 10 days. E. coli is found in raw or improper cooked meat, raw milk and raw vegetables when being contaminated.

4. Vibrio: 

It is associated with consumption of raw or under cooked fish, seafood like oysters. The incubation period ( period between ingestion of infected food and starting of symptoms) ranges from 12-24 hours, other strains of vibrio has a longer incubation period that is still up to 72 hours. Other factors like concentration of infected dose, acidity of stomach and weak or strong immunity all can affect the incubation period of the bacterium.

5. Campylobacter:

It is one of the leading cause of diarrheal food poisoning worldwide, It is usually related to ingestion of under cooked chicken, raw or unpasteurized milk, the incubation period ranged from 2- 7 days up to 11 day and lasts for about 5-7 days.

6. Clostridium perfringens:

Is anaerobic gram positive bacillus bacteria, they are spore forming, its spores  resist boiling up to an hour. incubation period is usually started after about only 6 to 24 hours as a result of the heat resistance of clostridium perfringens’ S spores. In united states, About one million individual are infected by this type of bacteria every year.  They are mostly found in raw or improper cooked meat and poultry. The symptoms are relatively mild and lasts for only one day.

7. Staphylococci bacteria:

Infection by this type of bacteria is very dangerous due to ingestion of already formed toxin. this type of bacteria can be killed under high temperature while its toxins remain even after boiling degree for 30 minutes , this bacteria also resist salting. Symptoms of food poisoning usually starts after about 4-6 hours and lasts for 6-8 hours. this bacteria is found in previously handled under cooked meat, ham, fresh and salted fish, sauces, and pastries.

How to treat food poisoning?

Most of food poisoning outbreaks can be treated with out any medical advice because they often disappear within few days.

1. Stay at home and rest as you can until you feel good.

2. Eat small little meals of a light healthy foods.

3. Avoid dehydration by frequent drinking of water and warm drinks or you can buy oral rehydration sachets from pharmacies in order to avoid dehydration especially for elder people and children.

4. Avoid salted, spicy and fatty food.

5. Avoid alcohols and coffee.

How to prevent food poisoning?

 1. You have to maintains high level of  hygiene during preparing, cooking and storage of food by frequent washing of your hands by warm water and soup especially before and after handling the raw uncooked food.

2. Washing the chopping board, knife, equipment after cutting the raw meat and chicken.  

3. Avoid cross contamination by separating the raw uncooked meat, chicken and fish and also their dripping from other foodstuffs like vegetables and fruits to avoid growing of bacteria and spread of infection.

4. Proper cooking of food especially raw meat, poultry and fish to avoid multiplying of bacteria and incidence of infection.

5. Make sure that you are cooked your food as well, re-heat the food very well and for only one time, any food remains after should be discarded.

6. Proper chilling of food by keeping them at the refrigerator at 5 C to avoid multiplying of bacteria. Do leave the food out side the fridge at the room temperature, otherwise, harmful bacteria can grow and cause food poisoning. Any food leftover should be chilled and then kept frozen as quickly as possible.

7. Avoid keeping the raw meat and poultry on the upper shelf of your refrigerator to avoid dripping of their blood on the beneath foodstuffs.

8. Avoid eating any food from an infected person’S hands or drinking after contaminated one and avoid using their tools.