Causes and Symptoms of Food-borne Diseases

In today’s world, people can get sick even by consuming food. Growing concerns regarding food-borne diseases have been common, coming from infections caused by viruses, bacteria and parasites. Moreover, these can also spread from person-to-person contact and contact with animals or the environment.

Are you afraid of catching food-borne diseases? This article will help you discover the causes, symptoms, and treatment methods of such diseases!

What Are Food-borne Diseases?

If you wonder what food-borne diseases are, they usually stem from the spoilage of contaminated food and beverages, pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and parasites in the food. Besides this, even prions and toxins in food can cause such diseases. Symptoms usually vary based on the different causes and can sustain for hours to days in human bodies. Thus, in short, the definition of food-borne diseases is connected to food poisoning caused by the ingestion of toxins and other poisonous substances.

What Are the Symptoms of Food-borne Diseases?

While learning about food-borne diseases, understanding their symptoms can be essential. Usually, these symptoms keep changing based on the type of infection or causes of such conditions.

Some of the following symptoms are widely seen in major food-borne diseases.

Fever, diarrhoea and vomiting, lasting for 1-7 days
Stomach flu from contaminated food and drinks
Abdominal pain and cramps
Signs of dehydration

While these are the immediate symptoms of food-borne diseases, individuals might avoid visiting doctors since these hardly seem to be anything serious. However, these can develop extreme forms, resulting in blood-laden vomits and stool, diarrhoea for more than three days, severe pain in the abdomen, oral temperature over 100.4 F, etc. One needs to visit a healthcare centre immediately for treatment in such cases.

What Causes Food-borne Diseases?

If you wonder how food-borne diseases are transmitted, the process can be complex. Apart from contaminated food, such infections can spread through contact with infected individuals, animals and contaminated water or soil. The causes of food-borne diseases usually depend upon the bacteria or viruses contaminating the food. This contamination can happen at any time, such as growing the food, harvesting, processing, storing, or shipping. Cross-contamination can also occur, whereby harmful organisms transfer from one surface to another, contaminating raw and ready-to-eat food. The following table discusses common causes of food-borne diseases.

Contaminant Cause	Symptom Onset	Affected food
Campylobacter	2 to 5 days	Mainly meat and poultry are affected when animal faeces touch the meat surface. Unpasteurised milk and contaminated water can also be contaminated.
Clostridium perfringens	8 to 16 hours	Apart from meat, viruses can contaminate cooked food like stews and gravies. It usually spreads when serving dishes are unable to keep the food hot.
Escherichia coli (E. coli)	1 to 8 days	During cow slaughter, beef can be contaminated with faeces. Other sources might include apple cider, alfalfa sprouts and unpasteurised milk.
Hepatitis A	28 days	It usually contaminates water, resulting in contaminated shellfish. Raw and ready-to-eat products can also be infected.
Clostridium botulinum	12 to 72 hours	Home-canned and commercially canned food items are mainly at risk. Moreover, smoked or salted fish, baked potatoes in aluminium foil and food kept warm for a long time might be contaminated.
Listeria	9 to 48 hours	It mainly contaminates luncheon meat and hotdogs. Moreover, unwashed raw products, cheese, and contaminated soil can also be at risk.
Noroviruses (Norwalk-like viruses)	12 to 48 hours	Infected food handlers can often spread this virus. Raw and ready-to-eat products and shellfish from contaminated water can be risky for consumption.
Staphylococcus aureus	1 to 6 hours	Meat and prepared salads can be at entire risk for this virus. Moreover, cream sauce and cream-filled pastries can be contaminated.
Vibrio vulnificus	1 to 7 days	It mainly contaminates raw oysters, undercooked mussels, whole scallops and clams. Contaminated seawater can spread this virus.

In this context, let us evaluate some of the common examples of food-borne diseases. Majority of such diseases result from infections from viral pathogens.

List of Food-borne Diseases

1. Salmonellosis

Salmonella bacteria cause this life-threatening disease. It involves abdominal cramps, fever, diarrhoea, and vomiting, among other symptoms.

2. Hemorrhagic Colitis

Bacterium Escherichia coli can cause such infectious diseases. It is characterised by bloody diarrhoea, abdominal cramps and fever.

3. Campylobacteriosis

Campylobacter jejuni causes this infection, leading to severe disorders affecting the peripheral nervous system. Diarrhoea or dysentery syndromes are standard features and include cramps and fever.

4. Shigellosis

Shigella bacteria cause such infections. Abdominal pain, fever and diarrhoea are common symptoms, usually showing after two days of exposure.

5. Norovirus Gastroenteritis

The Norwalk virus family causes this infection. The symptoms include inflammation of the stomach or intestines. Acute gastroenteritis is also termed to address this disease.

6. Acute Viral Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) can cause this disease. It is characterised by the inflammation of the liver causing mild to severe illness. Its symptoms include fever, fatigue, and loss of appetite, dark urine, abdominal pain and jaundice.

Who Is at Risk for Food-borne Diseases?

Food-borne diseases can happen to anyone irrespective of age, gender or social status. However, based on medical case histories, older adults are at risk. It is mainly because the immunity system usually gets weaker with age, making the individuals prone to developing infections quicker than young people. Moreover, pregnant women can also be at risk. Metabolism and blood circulation in the human body often undergo changes during pregnancy, which increases the chances of food poisoning.

Apart from this, infants and young children can be at risk since their immunity system is not fully developed. Thus, anything they eat can affect their digestive system if they are contaminated in any way. In addition, people with chronic diseases, such as liver diseases, AIDS, or diabetes, can quickly catch food infections.

How Are Food-borne Diseases Treated?

The treatment of such diseases can be different depending on the types of food-borne diseases and their severity. Usually, such illnesses and their issues can be resolved in a few days without much hassle. However, in severe cases, doctors go for the following treatment procedures.

1. Lost Fluid Replacement

Persistent diarrhoea is a common symptom of such diseases and infections. It can result in loss of fluids and electrolytes from the body. These include sodium, calcium and potassium, which maintain fluid balance. Children and adults with such diarrhoea, therefore, require hospitalisation. It helps them receive salt and fluid through a vein, which helps prevent dehydration.

2. Medication

Doctors often prescribe antibiotics medication when they find certain bacterial food poisoning in your system. Particularly in cases of food poisoning caused by listeria, intravenous antibiotics can be necessary for treatment during hospitalisations. Antibiotic treatment is also mandatory for pregnant women suffering from food-borne diseases.

If you are planning to avoid food-borne diseases in the future, ensure to wash your hands and keep the utensils clean. Moreover, you have to maintain proper sanitation and cleaning standards in the kitchen while preparing food. Raw meat, seafood and poultry products should be kept separate from other food items. It would help if you used proper thawing techniques for frozen meat to prevent the growth of bacteria. Furthermore, keeping the pets away from the kitchen and cooking places often helps to avoid such diseases.

What Is the Outlook for People With Food-borne Diseases?

There are hardly any long-term risks with food-borne diseases. People usually recover within a few days without any future health issues. However, in rare cases, they might develop lasting health problems. It might lead to death if the disease reaches severe levels. In general, you will find millions of cases regarding the hospitalisation of people dealing with food poisoning issues.

Hence, now you know that food-borne diseases are a genuine concern, and individuals should avoid them in everyday life. While these mainly spread from bacteria and viruses present in the food, sometimes contaminated people, animals and the natural environment can also spread such diseases. Therefore, you should be careful and take medical help if you feel their symptoms.

Frequently Asked Questions

✓ What are the three leading causes of food-borne illness?

The cause for such diseases includes bacteria, viruses and parasites present in food. Apart from that, chemical hazards such as chemical contaminants and natural toxins can also spread. Moreover, there can be physical hazards, such as metal shavings from cans and plastic pieces.

✓ Are food-borne diseases curable?

In most cases, food-borne diseases are curable. Sometimes, they cure themselves even without medical support. However, if the condition is extremely severe, the treatment can be long-term.