Food Poisoning: Transmission, Symptoms and mortality, Incubation, Infectious Dose, Food Crisis, Statistics, Prevention

Food Poisoning

A foodborne illness (commonly, food poisoning) is a disease, often infectious and accidental contracted from ingestion of food or drink contaminated with pathogens ranging from bacteria, viruses, parasites or prions. For foodborne illness caused by ingestion of non-edible or toxic (drug poisoning, heavy metal poisoning, poisonous mushrooms, chemicals), it speaks only of food poisoning.

Such contamination usually results from the improper handling, preparation, storage or storage or cooking (non-compliance storage temperatures or cooking, cross contamination). Good practices of hygiene before, during, and after food preparation can reduce the risk of food-borne infections. The action of monitoring food ( "from farm to fork") to ensure it does not cause disease transmitted via food, as is known under the term food security.

A food-borne group (TIAC) is an infectious disease notifiable (MDO) which occurs when there is "at least two cases grouped with similar events due to contamination by micro-organisms (bacteria in general ) or a toxin. The largest 'food poisoning collective are "food crisis".


Transmission

The sick employees who handle food are a source of contamination most common transmitted through food. Some common diseases are occasionally transmitted to food by the water used in this case vector. Among them there are the infections caused by Shigella, the hepatitis A and parasites such as Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium parvum. The defilement of food by pests especially flies, rodents and cockroaches, is another way of food contamination by other vectors. The disease transmitted through food may also be due to the presence of pesticides or medicines in food, or the involuntary consumption of natural toxic substances like poisonous mushrooms or reef fish.


Symptoms and mortality

The symptoms typically begin several hours to several days after the ingestion and depending on the agent in question may comprise one or more of the following: nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, gastroenteritis, fever, headache or fatigue. In most cases the symptoms disappear permanently recover after a short period of discomfort and illness. However, the disease transmitted by food may result in permanent health problems and even death, especially among infants, pregnant women and fetuses, the elderly, the sick, people with weak immune systems . The disease transmitted through food is a major cause of reactive arthritis, which occurs typically 1 to 3 weeks after infection. Similarly, people with liver disease are particularly susceptible to infection with Vibrio vulnificus, which can be transmitted by oysters or crabs.


Incubation

The delay between consumption of contaminated food and onset of first symptoms of illness called incubation period. This ranges from hours to several days (and rarely months or even years, as in the case of listeriosis or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease), it depends on the causative agent and the amount consumed. If symptoms appear within 1 to 6 hours after consumption of food, we must assume it was caused by a bacterial toxin or toxic chemical rather than by bacteria. During the incubation period, the microbes pass through the stomach to the intestine, binds to cells of the intestinal wall and begins to multiply. Some pathogens remain in the intestine, some produce a toxin that passes into the bloodstream, and some can directly invade the deeper tissues of the body. The resulting symptoms depend on the type of infectious agent in question.


Infectious Dose

The infectious dose is the amount of infectious agent that must be consumed to cause the symptoms of the disease transmitted by food. The infective dose varies depending on the agent involved and the age and health of the consumer. In the case of salmonella, a volunteer for human health, a relatively large inoculum of 10 million to 100 million organisms is necessary to cause symptoms because salmonella is very sensitive to acid. Thus, a level of abnormally high gastric pH significantly reduces the number of bacteria required for the onset of symptoms (a factor of 10 to 100 times).


Pathogens


Bacteria

Infections bacteria are the most common cause of food poisoning.

In the United Kingdom during 2000, the different bacteria involved were as follows: Campylobacter jejuni (77.3%), Salmonella (20.9%), Escherichia coli O157: H7 (1.4%), and all other (less 0.1%)

In France an infectious agent was detected in less than 50% of cases. Then it was salmonella (64%), Staphylococcus aureus (14%), Clostridium perfringens (5%) and Bacillus cereus (3.5%)

In the United States, the Noroviruses are the most common cause of disease transmitted through food, causing 57% of epidemics in 2004. In the past, bacterial infections were considered the most prevalent because few laboratories have the ability to search the norovirus and no active surveillance was conducted for this particular germ.

Symptoms of bacterial infections is delayed because the bacteria need time to multiply. Usually, not observed before 12 to 36 hours after eating contaminated.

The bacterial pathogens most commonly transmitted through food are:
Aeromonas hydrophila, Aeromonas caviae, Aeromonas sobria
Bacillus cereus
Brucella spp.
Campylobacter jejuni that causes Guillain-Barre
Corynebacterium ulcerans
Coxiella burnetii or Q fever
Escherichia coli



Salmonella
E. coli O157: H7: enterohaemorrhagic that cause hemolytic uremic syndrome |
Salmonella
E. coli enteroinvasive
E. coli enteropathogenic
E. enterotoxigenic E. coli
E. coli enteroagrégatif
Listeria monocytogenes
Plesiomonas shigelloides
Salmonella spp.
Shigella spp.
Streptococcus
Vibrio cholerae, including O1 and non-O1
Vibrio parahaemolyticus
Vibrio vulnificus
Yersinia enterocolitica
Yersinia pseudotuberculosis


Exotoxins

In addition to the disease due to direct bacterial infection, some foodborne illnesses are caused by exotoxins which are excreted by the cell when the bacteria multiply in the food. The exotoxins are enterotoxin which can cause illness even if micro-organisms that produced them have been killed. Symptoms typically appear after 1-6 hours depending on the dose of toxin ingested. This is called intoxination.
Clostridium botulinum
Clostridium perfringens
Staphylococcus aureus

For example, Staphylococcus aureus (Staphylococcus aureus) produces a toxin that causes severe vomiting and diarrhea about 3 hours after ingestion of food. Healing is spontaneous. The botulism, a rare but potentially lethal (5 to 10% of cases) occurs when the bacteria anaerobic Clostridium botulinum multiplies in foods with low acidity, which provides condition anaerobic (without oxygen) and produces Botulinum toxin, a powerful paralytic toxin. Foods most often implicated are raw hams (development near the bone) and poorly sterilized canned family.


Virus

Infection viral constitute perhaps a third of food poisoning in developed countries. They usually have an incubation period of intermediate (1-3 days), cause diseases that limit themselves in subjects that have no other health problems, and are similar to bacterial forms described above.



Rotavirus
Norovirus (formerly Norwalk Virus)
Rotavirus
The Hepatitis A is distinguished from other viral causes of its incubation period prolonged (2-6 weeks) and its power to spread beyond the stomach and intestines, the liver. It often induces jaundice (jaundice), or yellowing of the skin, and only rarely leads to chronic liver dysfunction.
The hepatitis E


Parasites

Most food poisoning caused by parasites are zoonoses:

the scolex of Tenia solium
Platyhelminthes:
Taenia saginata
Taenia solium
Fasciola hepatica
Nematodes:
Ascaris lumbricoides
Trichinella spiralis
Trichuris trichiura
Protozoa:

Giardia lamblia
Acanthamoeba and other amoebae free
Cryptosporidium parvum
Entamoeba histolytica
Giardia lamblia
Sarcocystis hominis
Sarcocystis suihominis
Toxoplasma gondii

Others
Anisakis sp.
Cyclospora cayetanensis
Diphyllobothrium sp.
Eustrongylides sp.
Nanophyetus sp.


Natural Toxins

In contrast, various foods can naturally contain toxins that are produced by bacteria and occur naturally in food, including:
of hemolysins (toxins thermolabile some natural foods eaten raw)
of mycotoxins), such as the aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, etc..
the alkaloids, see Cicuta and Conium
the ciguatera
the ergotamine (rye flour parasitized see Ergotism)
the grayanotoxine (poisoning by honey)
the toxins of higher fungi (amatoxines, phallotoxines ...)
the Mycotoxin (poisoning caused by fungi microscopic)
the phytohaemagglutinin (poisoning beans red)
the pyrrolizidine alkaloid
the shellfish toxin
the scombrotoxine
the histamine present in scrombiacae and cheese
the triterpenes and sesquiterpenes
the ILLUDIN the crustulinol ...
the tetrodotoxin (intoxication caused by certain fish such as fugu)
toxins xenobiotics (food contamination by pesticides, metals such as lead or arsenic, radionuclides exceeding 600 Bequerel / kg dry matter), etc..)


Other pathogens
the prion, leading to the Creutzfeldt-Jakob


Food Crisis

Despite their heading directly media, food crises have caused a very small number of food poisonings and deaths.


Recent food crises

major food crises, over-publicized, were:
"Listeriosis"
"Crisis of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) (with a huge media coverage, despite the very low number of human cases, about 100 people in the world)
FMD
Listeria
Salmonella
Dioxins:
Seveso dioxin (Seveso disaster) has made no deaths
"Chicken dioxin in May 1999, extensive media coverage, no deaths
meat treated with hormones (hormone-treated beef)


Reporting

In France, any suspicion of TIAC in a community in the restoration or in the food industry must be immediately reported to the DDCCRF (Departmental Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Repression of Fraud) http:// www.minefi.gouv.fr / directions_services / dgccrf / documentation / dossier_litiges / index.htm, DDASS (Departmental Directorate of Health and Social Affairs or the DDSV (Departmental Direction of Veterinary Services) to an investigation is conducted to identify :
The micro-organism responsible (through a comparison of clinical, microbiological analysis and case-control);
The food vehicle (through the case-control);
The factors favoring the multiplication of micro-organism;
The origin of the contamination: lots and possible trade channels.

Remember to keep the labeling of food suspected food poisoning. These data are valuable to trace the source of the problem.

Identifying causes of TIAC will enable the DGCCRF DDASS or DDSV to take specific measures that will prevent recurrence and facilitate the correction of errors in preparation, rehabilitation facilities, withdrawal of marketing contaminated food, the closure of premises, destruction of infected flocks, and disinfection.


Statistics

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom in the year 2000, 2 million poisonings (around 3 400 per 100 000 inhab.), The bacteria were involved
Campylobacter jejuni: 77.3%
Salmonella: 20.9%
Escherichia coli O157: H7: 1.4%
and all others <0.1%. style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">the United States

In the U.S., for 76 million food poisoning (26 000 per 100 000 inhab.)
325 000 persons were hospitalized (111 per 100 000 inhab.)
5 000 people died (1.7 per 100 000 inhab.).


In Canada

In Quebec, for foodborne illness reported to MAPAQ in 2007-2008
47.8% home
45.5% were due to consumption of food in restaurants,
4.4% in the other categories of schools.
2.3% in institutions

Prevention

In developed countries, prevention against food poisoning is primarily the action of the State, by establishing an intelligence service veterinarian to monitor the live animals were slaughtered and food products derived therefrom, with d a power of inspection (slaughterhouses, butcher shops, food factories, shops, restaurants ...) and repression also putting in place a requirement for traceability (identification of batches of food to be able to withdraw if health risk). La France has also created the French Agency for Food Safety (AFSSA), to ensure that food security.

From professionals, it is necessary to adopt strict hygiene measures (clothing, food grade material, cleaning, cold chain, personnel training ...), and a risk monitoring (sampling at regular for analytical procedures HACCP ...). Some foods are irradiated (or irradiated) to eliminate bacteria on food and reduce the risk of food poisoning.

For individuals, prevention is to fulfill the conservation of foods, controlling date consumption of packaged foods, cleaning the fridge regularly to wash their hands before preparing and eating meals, washing clear water consumed fresh products (fruit, salad, vegetables), washing the dishes after use and maintain the kitchen in a sufficiently clean. During a trip abroad, respect for culinary traditions can often protect themselves against food poisoning, it must in some countries are wary of tap water (including ice) and foods washed in water common.