Food poisoning is caused by ingestion of food that is contaminated with viruses, pathogenic bacteria or toxins that are produced by the bacteria. Food poisoning manifests itself through nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal cramping.
These initial symptoms can be seen either immediately or less than 48 hours after ingestion. Other common symptoms include:
- Chills
- Fever
- Dehydration
- Traces of blood in the stool
- Change in nervous system
- Watery stools
- Intense diarrhea
- Nausea coupled with vomiting
- Pain in the stomach
Food poisoning can lead to death if a patient does not seek medical attention urgently. Most of the symptoms can easily be traced at home and treated from there without going to hospital. If symptoms last for a week, then urgent medical treatment should be sought because salmonella could have caused the poisoning. In this case, the patient will experience signs of flu for about 5 days. If botulism bacteria cause poisoning, the symptoms will mainly be a dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision and abdominal pain.
Most poisons make it difficult for the body to send signals to the brain and therefore make it difficult to do much else. Muscles become tense and one is not able to control them especially around the neck and face. Other people cannot swallow anything because their throats become inflamed and this makes it difficult to eat anything. This further leads to choking, which sometimes forces foreign bodies into the lungs. Without treatment, death could occur in a few days.
The intensity at which these symptoms manifest will depend on how much food containing the poison was ingested. If it was just a little bit, then the symptoms may come and go without any treatment. However, large doses of poison need to be treated using drugs that will reduce the effect of the poison.