Tag Archive for 'Food Poisoning'

Some food-borne illnesses are increasing

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Jana
on May 24, 2009
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During the past three years, the amount of food-borne illnesses has increased. This has made it more pressing for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is the nation’s food safety system, to change so that they can have a better way to deal with this disturbing trend.

Robert Tauxe, the deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Food-borne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, says that there should be more done at all the levels of the movement of food in the food chain in order to stop bacterial contamination.

Beginning in 1996, the agency has been keeping track of the number of people diagnosed with infections that were caused by eight bacteria and three parasites found in food. Several of the illnesses had decreased in numbers until 2004, when they started going up and have remained steady. These include illnesses caused by salmonella, vibrio, E coli 0157 and cambylobacter.

The first data of 2008 showed that the infection rates for five food-borne illnesses had surpassed national goals that were set by the CDC. For example, in 2008, the goal for salmonella cases was 7 illnesses for every 100,00 people, but the number was an astounding 16. This data did not include the outbreak of the salmonella illness that was due to the tainted peanut products which started at the end of last year and climaxed in the beginning months of this year. Almost 700 people became sick and 9 were killed.

Tauxe claimed that there are several elements behind this upswing, three being the complexity of the U.S. food chain, the ever changing character of bacteria and the increase of imports. The intricacy of the problem is causing many varieties of food to become contaminated, which includes more produce and some new foods that have not been affected in the past.

The study found that children under 4 are especially vulnerable to food-borne pathogens. Also, adults over 50 are more likely to be hospitalized and die from similar illnesses. According to Tauxe, some of the ways children can become infected is by living with pet turtles or reptiles, riding in shopping carts that have raw poultry and meats, or from day care centers, where other children or day care employees are not washing their hands properly.

Salmonella still remains the most common culprit of food poisoning. There was more than 7,400 lab-confirmed illnesses in the states that were tracking the illnesses. CDC officials said that there hasn’t been a substantial change in the rate of salmonella cases in recent years.

The two kinds of bacterial infections that were the second and third most common food-borne illnesses are campylobacter and shigella. These happen at rates of around 13 and 7 per 100,000.

Having diarrhea for more than 24 hours could mean food poisoning

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Jana
on March 10, 2009
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If you are unfortunate enough to get diarrhea that lasts more than a day, you might want to consider that it might be food poisoning. 

Each year, almost one-fourth of Americans deal with a food-borne illness. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, a very small number of cases are attributed to well-known outbreaks such as the recent salmonella-peanut scare.

More than 250 food-related types of illnesses, including viruses, bacteria and parasites, have been counted by scientists. Norwalk-like viruses, known for making cruise-ship passengers sick, are the most common. According to the CDC, almost two-thirds of know food poisoning can be blamed on them.

The next most common are two types of bacteria, campylobacter and salmonella. About 14 percent of food poisonings occur from campylobacter bacteria and around 10 percent point toward salmonella.

A decade ago, a group of CDC scientists came up with the best estimate of how many Americans come down with food poisoning each year: 76 million cases that ended in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.

There are no recent numbers available, but the numbers are projected to be close to 87 million cases, 371,000 hospitalizations and 5,700 deaths. These figures are from the Associated Press calculation which used the CDC formula and current population estimates.

More than 640 illnesses in 44 states and nine deaths have been caused by the recent peanut-related salmonella outbreak. The source of the outbreak was found at a Virginia-based company that makes minor -label peanut butter, peanut paste and other products.

These numbers are no where near the actual amount of cases. A confirmation on a case occurs only after a lab test is sent to the CDC. So many people just suffer through it without even going to a doctor.

Health officials believe that for every salmonella case, there are about 36 unreported cases.

Some symptoms of food poisoning are extreme diarrhea that lasts a day or more, possible nausea, vomiting or stomach cramps. If you get these symptoms, do not get dehydrated. Drinks such as CeraLyte, Pedialyte or Oralyte may help. Sports drinks like Gatorade are not enough to help. Diarrhea medicine such as Pepto-Bismol can also help.

See a doctor if you experience any of these symptoms: temperature of 101.5 degrees or higher, blood in your stool, continuous vomiting, dizziness, decreased urination or other dehydration signs, or diarrhea that lasts for more than three days.

Food poisoning often found to be responsible for chronic illnesses

Published
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Jana
on October 6, 2008
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There is a small amount of people who develop longterm health problems due to food poisoning, but their numbers are growing. Medical experts have looked for the source of specific chronic illnesses over the past ten years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, these experts have increasingly found links to events of food poisoning, often many years beforehand.

Campylobacter, a bacterium linked to raw chicken, is now identified as a chief cause of sudden acute paralysis known as Guillain-Barre syndrome. Specific strains of salmonella, which is the bacterium involved in the recent outbreak in Mexican raw jalapeno and serrano peppers, can cause arthritis. Also, E. coli O157:H7, a strain of a normally harmless bacterium that lives in animal intestines, can release toxins that can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, a kidney disorder that leads to 25 to 50 percent of cases of kidney failure, high blood pressure and other problems as far off as 10 years later. This is just the start of the many health problems that some people are now associating with food-borne infections.

It is estimated by the CDC that there are 76 million cases of food-borne disease in the U.S. annually. Most of these people experience it only as diarrhea or stomach pain, although an alarming estimation of 5,000 to 9,000 Americans die every year form food poisoning. A small amount of pathogens are accountable for more than 90 percent of these fatalities: listeria, salmonella, noroviruses, toxoplasma, campylobacter and E. coli. Small children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems are most vulnerable to infection.

For many reasons, the long-term health effects of food-borne infections are difficult to study. It is hard to prove a link between some of these illnesses and later conditions like arthritis and even though there are yearly outbreaks all over the nation, the problem hasn’t received much public attention or funding. In addition, federal health-care privacy laws inhibit researchers from contacting anyone who is not in their direct care.

Because of these laws, STOP is creating a national registry of victims of food-borne disease who would agree to participate in longitudinal studies.

Most of the 76 million cases of food-borne diseases that happen each year in the U.S. cause symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting for the first day or two. It is recommended by the CDC to call your doctor if diarrhea is coupled with a high fever (over 101.5), blood in the stools or extended vomiting that prevents liquids from staying down. A doctor should also be contacted if diarrhea lasts more than three days.

Of course there are things that can be done to reduce the risk of getting food poisoning. Meat and eggs should be cooked thoroughly. Ground beef must reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees and eggs should be cooked until the yolk is firm. Cross contamination can be avoided simply by washing hands, cutting boards and utensils after they have been in contact with raw meat or chicken and before they touch another food. All leftovers should be put in clean containers and refrigerated quickly. Before preparing food, hands need to be washed thoroughly. Remove dirt from fresh fruit and vegetables by running tap water over them and always throw away the outer leaves from a head of lettuce or cabbage.