Food Born Illness
By: Lucas Stout
Definition
Food born illness is a virus that is caused by eating or drinking food that has not been cooked thoroughly or has expired. There are many diseases classified under food born illness such as E. Coli and Cholera.
Causes
The virus is caused by eating digesting raw or uncooked food. Food born illness is also caused by animals that are butchered that have contaminated meat or certain diseases. Parasites like Campylobactor can form if the food is left out too long and can result as another cause of food poisoning. Once infected, a body has a time period of about two hours to several days before symptoms start. The amount of time an individual has depends on health and the severity of the illness.
Symptoms
A person infected with the virus can start to experience certain symptoms such as nausea/vomiting, abdominal pain and cramps, diarrhea, fever, and headaches. Food born illness affects mostly your immune system and it weakens you.The virus also attacks your stomach.
How to Keep Safe
To protect yourself from food born illness, you need to mainly make sure that your food is cooked all the way. The danger zone for bacteria to grow is 40 to 140 degrees. If you arent going to eat the within one hour of it sitting out, you should freeze it. Make sure that when thawing out an item, you use a microwave or an oven. Try to avoid using a slow cooker when thawing, as they often don't heat the food enough.
Prevention
To prevent getting food poisoning, use basic hygiene like washing your hands. Also keep raw food separate from ready to eat food and refrigerate well. "When in doubt, throw it out."
Treatment
Food poisoning treatment greatly depends on the source of virus and where your location in the world is. Some countries don't have good means of medical care so they might not be able to care for patients as easily. Doctors will most likely use antibiotics to treat you.
Food Born Illness in Iowa
In Iowa, the most common cases of food poisoning are caused by berries and fruit. The highest percent of the cases are in Linn County. In 2013 a major outbreak occurred and 45 people were infected with food poisoning The symptoms for these people took about one week to start. Food Born Illness is found all over the world. It is mostly found but not reported in places where proper cooking and preservation techniques are not widely known.
Bibliography
"Food Poisoning." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic. Web.
"Food-borne Illness Sickens 45 in Iowa, 35 in Nebraska." Fox News. FOX News Network, 15 July 2013. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.