Foodborne infections and poisoning become the cause of human malaise. With a large accumulation of pathogens, the body is damaged in a large number of individuals. Understanding the problems of infection, you need to take into account all the risks and prevent disease.
Infection problem
Food infections differ from poisoning in that microorganisms are easily transmitted to others if sanitary standards are not observed. When the infection becomes widespread, specialists should deal with the diseased. Prevention should be carried out, especially if ailments have occurred in preschool and school institutions.
Dangerous conditions are when there is a decline in the strength of the body. Other pathogenic microorganisms pass human immunity , favorable conditions for the acquisition of chronic diseases are created. Some infections may remain inside for life. Practical events made it possible to create morbidity statistics, according to which the main causes of infection were identified.
Key Definitions
Pathogens cause foodborne infections depending on the species:
- Bacteria dangerous to animals are zoonoses.
- Disorders only in humans are anthroponoses.
- Mixed types of microorganisms are zooanthroponoses, with them a person becomes infected from livestock.
Foodborne infections are different, depending on the causative agents that caused them:
- zooanthroponoses provoke brucellosis, plague, anthrax;
- anthroponoses cause dysentery, cholera, typhoid fever.
Both animals and humans may not have symptoms of malaise, but at the same time be carriers of infection. Often infection occurs through unverified milk or meat.
Disturbances are distinguished:
- bacterial origin: food infection - toxic infection, intoxication - the result of the use of foods saturated with toxins;
- non-bacterial.
You can catch infection only from infected products. A man becomes a carrier himself. Most microorganisms can survive in the air. Persistent, they do not multiply. Only getting into a living organism, they pass into an active form.
Sources of malaise
Microorganisms that cause foodborne infections are not in active form in food unless favorable conditions exist. When the temperature rises, the bacteria begin to multiply. The following factors contribute to growth:
- constant humidity;
- the presence of fungi, yeast, dietary fiber;
- sweet environment - the best provocateur of infection;
- toxins such as botulism can often be found in canned home-made meat, chicken;
- in milk and meat products, sausage contains salmonella.
If you carefully inspect the listed products, you can avoid dangerous infections. In these products, pathogens develop instantly at a warm temperature. Even an hour under the sun, meat and eggs become sources of infection. Foodborne infections and poisoning occur at the same time.
Intestinal infections have distinctive features:
- pathogens after infection are able to be transmitted to others, poisoning occurs due to the accumulation of toxins in food;
- infections are in any product - spoiled and unspoiled;
- a person can be poisoned only with stale food;
- infections can settle for a long time in the human body, making themselves felt in a few days;
- poisoning is observed immediately, in a period of not more than three hours;
A large number of people can immediately get sick from one product.
Common signs of infection
Feeling unwell a few hours after eating can indicate poisoning. A food infection has entered the body. Symptoms of such conditions:
- Dizziness.
- Vomiting
- High blood pressure.
- Abdominal cramps.
- Gassing in the intestines.
- Diarrhea, general weakness of the body.
The patient observes a set of such ailments when acute foodborne infections are detected. Diarrhea can occur much later, it all depends on external factors and the concentration of pathogens in the products. The first sign of poisoning is a lack of appetite. The abdomen begins to swell. Painful conditions appear, aggravated by walking.
After a few hours, an avalanche-like increase in intestinal spasms occurs. A person gets prolonged diarrhea. During this period, they struggle with the clinical signs of poisoning. After the food infection has receded, they try to fix the symptoms and interview the patient for the use of poor-quality food.
In most cases, the common signs of malaise are the same for all people. To establish the true cause of poisoning, laboratory tests of the biomaterial will be required. Without such a procedure, no doctor can make a correct diagnosis.
Pathogens in milk
The most common cases of foodborne infections are observed in cases of poisoning with poor-quality milk and its derivatives. The matter is more often related to home products, while factories are still periodically monitored. Based on the results of the check, the animal is determined in which the physical and chemical composition of the milk has changed:
- With tuberculosis, an increase in the amount of fat and a decrease in units of protein are observed. It tastes like salty milk.
- Brucellosis disease is less noticeable, milk remains the same.
- Complications of leukemia lead to an increase in fat, solids. Casein and lactose are reduced. A huge number of white blood cells are found in a sick animal.
- With foot-and-mouth disease, milk does not sit well in yogurt. White blood cells are growing, the amount of fat. The drink tastes bitter, the animal reduces the production of products.
- A disease like mastitis also spoils dairy products. There is an increase in white blood cells in the composition of milk.
Toxic infections give symptoms like poisoning, but they are easily transmitted to people around. Microorganisms multiply inside the products and in the human body. Such a malaise is easy to confuse, a full examination will be required to make an accurate diagnosis.
Contaminated milk is distinguished by the following feature: the form of fat globules on the surface of the liquid. Rounded features indicate normal pet health. Pathological figures from the vagueness indicate a change in composition. However, the analysis takes into account the seasonality of the measurements taken, as well as the conditions of the cow.
Kind of malaise
Foodborne viral infections can be caused by various viruses. They are contagious, not only for others, but also for the sick person. Bacteria spread through the internal organs. They get into the stomach, intestines, settle in the upper respiratory tract.
An ascending infection may occur when the lungs are affected, and then the bronchial system. The most common rotavirus damage to internal organs. Intestinal symptoms become vivid symptoms, there is a general malaise. Diarrhea gives way to gas and constipation. Often the body temperature rises, while a red throat is observed. There is no pain when swallowing food. Fevering cramps occur in the body.
The following types of infections are distinguished:
- The listed rotaviruses of group A.
- Enteroviruses.
- Reoviruses.
- Adenoviruses.
All groups are established through laboratory tests. The principles of treatment are practically the same, but individual therapy is selected for each infection. An important step towards cure is to determine the source of the disease and its complete exclusion. All of these types have a special survivability inside watery clusters. Some species even withstand heat and chemical treatment.
How do they get infected?
Foodborne intestinal infections have common routes of transmission to a healthy person:
- Violation of the timing of the manufacture and storage of food products.
- Non-observance of sanitary and hygienic rules, often this occurs in young children.
- Lack of control of the state of the body after attending public events, before entering school, kindergarten.
- The only way to poison a person is through the ingestion of microbes. Only through the mouth does microorganism enter the intestines. They develop inside the thin section, constantly descending further.
- In the feces of a sick person contains more than a million pathogenic microbes. Therefore, during the period of exacerbation of the infection, it is recommended that the main attention be paid to sanitary and hygienic procedures.
Dirty hands always carried foodborne infections. Diseases were more often found in scruffy people, as well as in young children due to their lack of understanding of the importance of the problem or the irresponsible behavior of their parents. Less commonly, infection is transmitted by airborne droplets.
In direct contact with domestic animals, outbreaks of infectious poisoning are observed in rural areas. Epidemics occur in the spring-autumn period. Inside the food, active forms of viruses and bacteria are found for a long time. With improper storage and processing of products, the growth of pathogenic microorganisms begins.
Eating meat from the shelves of local markets, dairy products from private yards, you can catch not only rotavirus or bacterial infections. Dangerous parasites can survive in the tissues of a pet, they become the cause of much more dangerous diseases.
Adenoviruses remain after the patient on personal items, utensils, in bed. With inflammation accompanied by acute ailments in the intestines, it is better to adhere to strict rules of sanitation.
Exacerbation phase
Acute periods of the disease are characterized by a decrease in the general well-being of a person. Neglected stages of poisoning even led to deaths. Medical care should be provided in a timely manner. An extreme measure to save the patient's life is washing the stomach and intestines with special solutions.
After the procedure, pathogenic microorganisms are removed along with useful ones. Therefore, powerful therapy is used to return healthy microflora throughout the recovery period. The most powerful period of complications occurs on the first day after infection. If the symptoms do not quench for more than 7 days, then the patient requires mandatory hospitalization and urgent therapy to destroy pathogens.
All poisoning takes place against a background of high body temperature of more than 38 degrees. The patient complains of chills, febrile manifestations, rejection of fresh food. He will need a diet, medication. Vomiting is combined with persistent diarrhea. Not every person is able to withstand this, so most victims prefer to experience malaise in the clinic.
Pain occurs in the head, stomach, lower abdomen. A cough, a kind of sore throat, an allergic attack can form. All inflammatory processes are accompanied by an exacerbation in the lymphatic system. The nodes swell noticeably. At this moment, being near the patient can be dangerous, the infection is easily transmitted through household items.
How to fight: general methods
Prevention of foodborne infections begins with compliance with the sanitary-hygienic rules for keeping livestock. Carefully choose food products, trusting only trusted manufacturers. In the warm season, they pay particular attention to the color change of fresh meat to dark tones.
Expired food is not recommended even as an ingredient for frying. Boiled meat is most safe to eat, but it cannot be stored for long. Affected products are destroyed by disinfection, simple disposal in the soil will lead to an outbreak of poisoning in the area.
Viruses are not only resistant to chemical methods of meat sterilization , but also persist during frying. According to disease statistics, the peak of infections and food poisoning occurs in the summer. Hot weather promotes the growth of pathogenic microorganisms.
Drug Wrestling
To eliminate acute complications, a food infection is inhibited by drugs. Treatment is prescribed immediately at the first sign of intoxication. Pharmacy products are designed to reduce the concentration of pathogens in the intestines. Patients are immediately prescribed a plentiful warm drink and drugs: activated carbon, Polysorb, Enerosgel. They absorb bacteria and viruses, leaving the body naturally.
For mild poisoning, it is recommended to induce a gag reflex to remove food that has not yet been digested. For washing the stomach, a weak solution of potassium permanganate is used. A few glasses of the product contribute to the natural cleansing of the body. A similar effect has modern drugs: "Gastrolit", "Regidron".
The appointment of powerful antibiotics should be carried out only after a full examination of the body by laboratory methods in the clinic. An improperly selected remedy will lead to a subsequent outbreak of another inflammation or to infection of loved ones. There are symptoms of a food-borne infection, after which it is impossible to delay hospitalization. These include blood in the feces, paroxysmal cough, body temperature above 39 degrees, loss of consciousness and delusional states.