FOOD POISONING CAN BE GOOD NEWS - WHEN YOU THINK YOU'VE CAUGHT EBOLA

No one wants food poisoning. But at times, being told you have food poisoning may actually be good news. That is, if you were beginning to think you had Ebola.

Symptoms of food poisoning can appear similar to those of Ebola in its early stages.

Here are the most common symptoms of Ebola (source: CDC): fever, severe headache, muscle pain, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal (stomach) pain, unexplained hemorrhage (bleeding or bruising).

Now, let’s compare the most common symptoms of food poisoning caused by Norovirus – also called “stomach flu” although it is not related to influenza: fever, headache, other body aches, fatigue, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain. Notice that "unexplained hemorrhage" is not among the symptoms of Norovirus, but it is not present during the early stages of Ebola either.

Let’s take another common type of food poisoning, the one causes by various Salmonella bacteria, some more deadly than others. Common symptoms include: fever, headache, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramps.

My point – unless you are in West Africa, have recently returned from West Africa where you might have been in contact with Ebola patients, or, have recently had close - and I mean VERY close - contact with an Ebola patient in another part of the world (not just shared a plane, but shared body fluids), relax! Those symptoms you are having could just be food poisoning (or, malaria, or some other nasty disease). But not Ebola.

To your good health,

TSF

CAN BABIES CATCH EBOLA FROM BREAST MILK?

Everyone is currently very nervous about Ebola. Yes, this horrible disease is mainly focused on West Africa. It's mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. But we are realizing that with so much international travel, nothing is confined for very long.

Information about Ebola is changing from day to day, including the information coming from the experts. In the United States, the main “experts” are at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). I noticed today that they are now finally acknowledging breast milk as a route for Ebola transmission. They weren’t earlier. Maybe they have been reading the same research studies that I have been reading, especially some research done on earlier outbreaks of Ebola in Uganda.

What these studies show is that mothers who are infected with this virus can indeed pass on the virus to the infants they are breast feeding. But what the CDC does not mention as yet, is that research has apparently found that breast milk can carry the virus for weeks after the mother appears to have recovered.

Well, CDC, I think you had better make a correction on your website, especially in the paragraph which states:” Once someone recovers from Ebola, they can no longer spread the virus.” Not true….

To your good health,

TSF