Monday, April 18, 2011

SYMPTOMS OF STAPH FOOD POISONING

With all this news about drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in U.S. meat, everyone has been asking me about the symptoms of staph food poisoning. Typically, they are: nausea, loss of appetite, vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhea - in other words, the usual ones for bacterial food poisoning. The symptoms usually start pretty soon after eating the tainted food. Some people also have severe headaches and a mild fever and muscle cramps. In certain serious cases blood pressure and pulse rate can also be affected.

Most people who are ill will start to feel OK in a couple of days, though it can take a bit longer. If you are unlucky enough to get a hefty dose of the B type of Staph enterotoxin (the most vicious, but not very common) you have about a 50% chance of ending up in hospital. But death only occurs in rare cases. When it does, it almost always involves young children, or very unhealthy or elderly people.

TSF

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

About the worst place to get bacterial food poisoning is on a plane. I was sick during a flight on an Asian plane last year and when I asked for something for my upset stoamach they didn't have anything!