The herbal vendor says the herbal mixture you are about to take is most powerful. It will cleanse your body from all kinds of ailments including pile, backache, stomachache, headache, earache and other achings in your body. The vendor will also tell you that seeing is believing because the mixture will make you go to toilet and you will see evidences of cleansing in your feces. And truly, moments after taken the mixture, it kickstarts for you, bouts of normal poos that rapidly change to watery feces at swift intervals. But what you are purging out may not be evidence(s) of cleansing but evidence of food poisoning Diarrhea; The mixture might just have infected you with POISON.
Food Poison
Food poisoning means getting sick from eating or drinking food/ liquid that has poisonous substances. But not the poisonous stuff that are deliberately used to extinguish life.
Medical experts say food poisoning is an illness associated with consumption of food or drink contaminated by germs or toxins medically known as Gastroenteritis or stomach flu, which is a viral or bacterial infection in the gut, causing inflammation of the stomach and intestine. Diarrhoea (loose or watery stools), tummy ache and vomiting are common signs of food poisoning.
Food poisoning is common and the scenario is recognizable. You ate something that looked or smelled not too pleasant and or suspicious, or you visited a place with no portable water but yet drank or ate something washed with the water, because our people say “impure water wouldn’t kill”, a few hours later you get tummy ache, you started vomiting and running backwards and forwards to the toilet, wondering what’s happening? What has happened is food poisoning. Yes, it may not kill you instantly because of your body immunity, but if complications set in, it may jeopardize your health. Most people will recognize food poisoning from their typical symptoms.
Prevalence & Incidence
Medical journals and experts say the burden of foodborne diseases to public health and welfare and to economies has often been underestimated due to underreporting and difficulty to establish causal relationships between food contamination and resulting illness or death.
WHO 2015 reports on the global burden of foodborne disease confirmed 31 foodborne agents in the form of bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins and chemicals at global and regional level.
The 2018 World Bank report on the economic burden of the foodborne diseases indicated that the total productivity loss associated with foodborne disease in low- and middle-income countries was estimated to cost US$ 95.2 billion per year, and the annual cost of treating foodborne illnesses is estimated at US$ 15 billion.
In spite of high standards in the US food supply, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that about 48 million cases of foodborne illnesses occur annually because of contaminated food. The agency estimated
128,000 hospitalizations and 3000 death result from food poisoning.
A study titled “Risk factors & Outcomes of Food Poisoning in Africa” published by Intech Open 2016 noted that food poisoning is one of the common health problems in most African countries
This Day Newspaper, a Nigeria’s tabloid, noted in an editorial 20 January, 2020 that The Nigerian government should worry more about food contamination. The editorial quoted a Professor of Food Science and Technology, Alfred Ihenkuronye, saying that no fewer than 200,000 persons die annually of food poison in Nigeria. According to the report, misapplication of chemicals, like sniper, on foods is a major concern for food poisoning in Nigeria.
Cholera is a recurring waterborne poisoning in Nigeria and elsewhere in the Sub Saharan nations during the rainy season and more often in areas with poor sanitation. Nigeria’s Government Health Authority reported 60,086 and 2162 cases and death respectively between 2010 and 2011.
NCDC reported 42,466 suspected cases and 830 deaths January 2018 and October 2018.
According to WHO, these figures represent 5-10% estimate of actual cases due to underreporting of cases
Generally, developing and poor countries suffer more food poisoning incidence due to lack of basic amenities like portable water, power, storage facilities and low hygiene standards.
Signs & Symptoms
Medical experts and journals say the main symptom is diarrhoea, often with vomiting as well. Diarrhoea is defined as “loose or watery stools (faeces), usually at least three times in 24 hours”. Blood or mucus can appear in the stools with some infections.
Crampy pains in tummy (abdomen) are common. Pains may ease for a while each time you pass some diarrhoea.
You may feel hot one minute and cold and shivery the next, and achy all over. These are symptoms of a high temperature (fever) which sometimes develops along with the tummy symptoms.
If vomiting occurs, it often lasts only a day or so but sometimes longer. Diarrhoea often continues after the vomiting stops and commonly lasts for several days or more. Slightly loose stools may persist for a week or so further before a normal pattern returns. Sometimes the symptoms last longer.
The vomiting and diarrhoea usually start hours or a very few days after consuming the contaminated food or water.
Dehydration
The major consequence of the key signs of food poisoning is dehydration- loss of fluid in the body. Mild dehydration experts say is common and is usually easily reversed by drinking lots of fluids, but severe dehydration, they say, can be fatal unless quickly treated because the organs of the body need a certain amount of fluid to function.
Symptoms of dehydration in adults include:
-Tiredness.
-Dizziness or light-headedness.
-Headache.
-Muscle cramps.
-Sunken eyes.
-Passing less urine.
-A dry mouth and tongue.
-Weakness.
-Becoming irritable.
Symptoms of severe dehydration in adults include:
-Profound loss of energy or enthusiasm (apathy).
-Weakness.
-Confusion.
-A fast heart rate.
-Producing very little urine.
-Coma – may occur.
Severe dehydration requires medical emergency and immediate medical attention is needed. However, you must seek medical advice if:
-You think that you are becoming dehydrated.
-You are vomiting a lot and can’t keep fluids down at all.
-You have blood in your stools (poo) or you vomit up blood.
-You have severe tummy pain.
-You have severe symptoms, or if you feel that your condition is becoming worse.
-You have a high temperature (fever), which doesn’t settle with medicines such as paracetamol, or which hangs about for three days or more.
-Your symptoms are not settling; for example, vomiting for more than 1-2 days, or diarrhoea that does not start to settle after 3-4 days.
-You are elderly or have an underlying health problem such as diabetes, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, kidney disease.
-You have a weakened immune system because of, for example, chemotherapy treatment, long-term steroid treatment, HIV infection.
-You are pregnant.
-You suspect that you may have contracted food poisoning from eating restaurant or takeaway food.
Causes & Types
Food Poisonings are usually infectious or toxic caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances entering the body through contaminated food or water.
Bacteria are most commonly implicated in gastroenteritis are Salmonella, Campylobacter, Shigella, Escherichia coli (E Coli) and Clostridium difficile. These are common food poisoning pathogens that affect millions of people annually- sometimes with severe and fatal outcomes.
-Salmonella infections source includes eggs, poultry and other products of animal origin.
– Campylobacter are caused by raw milk, raw or undercooked poultry and drinking water.
– Escherichia coli is associated with unpasteurized milk, undercooked meat and fresh fruits and vegetables.
A study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration found that from 2008 to 2012, 12percent of E. coli cases came from beef, 18 percent of salmonella cases came from seeded vegetables, and 66 percent of campylobacter cases came from dairy products.
Listeria is another food poisoning infection that can cause miscarriage in pregnant women or death of newborn babies. Medical experts say listeria foodborne disease occurrence is relatively low, but when it happens it is severe and sometimes with fatal health consequences, particularly among infants, children and the elderly. Listeria is one of the most serious foodborne infections. It’s found in unpasteurised dairy products and various ready-to-eat foods.
Cholera infects people through contaminated water or food. Rice, vegetables, millet gruel and various types of seafood have been implicated in cholera outbreaks.
Parasites
Parasites are living things (organisms) that live within, or on, another organism. Examples include cryptosporidium, Entamoeba histolytica and giardia parasites. Food poisoning caused by parasites is more common in the developing world.
Chemicals: Chemical contamination can lead to acute poisoning or long-term diseases. Foods and water contaminated by chemicals may have grave health consequences such as cancer, long lasting disability and death. Examples of unsafe food include uncooked foods of animal origin, fruits and vegetables contaminated with faeces, and raw shellfish containing marine biotoxins.
Environmental Pollutants and Natural Toxins
These include Naturally Occurring Toxins that can be found even in our staple foods like rice, corn or cereals and other grains. A long-term exposure to the toxins can affect the immune system and normal development
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS) that accumulate in the environment and human body. These are unwanted by products of industrial processes, waste incineration including human waste can get accumulated in animal food chains. They are toxic that can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and cause cancer.
Heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury cause neurological and kidney damage when they contaminate food and water through pollution of air, water and soil.
FOOD & WATER CONTAMINATION: Contamination of food can occur because of problems in food production, storage or cooking.
Food: You can get food poisoning by:
Not storing food correctly or at the correct temperature. For example, not refrigerating food. This is particularly a problem for meat and dairy products.
- Inadequate cooking of food (undercooking or not cooking to the correct temperature). Bacteria are often found in raw meat, including poultry. Adequate cooking usually kills the bacteria.
- Contamination by someone preparing the food who has not followed food hygiene rules and has not washed their hands properly.
- Contamination from other foods (cross-contamination). For example, not washing a board used to prepare raw meat before you cut a slice of bread using the same board. Storing raw meat in the fridge above food that is ‘ready-to-eat’ and so allowing raw meat juices to drip on to the food below.
- Bacteria can also be present in unpasteurised milk and cheese. The pasteurisation process kills the bacteria.
- Eating food from unknown sources: cooks’ ingredients’ kitchen etc.
Water contamination
Water can become contaminated with bacteria or other microbes usually because human or animal stools (faeces) get into the water supply. This is particularly a problem in countries with poor sanitation. In such countries, food may also be washed and prepared using contaminated water. So, for example, in countries with poor sanitation, you should always avoid:
- Drinking tap water.
- Having ice cubes in drinks (as the ice may have been made from tap water).
- Brushing your teeth with tap water.
- Eating salads (as the lettuce, tomatoes, etc, may have been washed in contaminated water).
- Eating uncooked vegetables (as they may have been washed in contaminated water)
We hope this write-up is useful. Now you know that frequent backwards and forwards visits to the toilet at a swift interval is no evidence that your body is going through health cleansing but rather, you are suffering from food poisoning.
Join us next week for more facts about food poisoning including the safe home remedy, other treatment and in particular how food poisoning can be prevented.
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Thanks for the info
Very educative content. I think people generally need to reduce their food consumption ‘outside’. At times, if you get to where meals are prepared in certain restaurants, you would never want to eat out again.
Most food poison are contacted from social events eg eating salad or jollof rice while party is about ending.
One most try to avoid just eating anywhere,but concentrate on home food to live a healthy life
Adebola you are right on point. We can’t be too careful about the food we invest. Thanks for your time on Citizen Comfort