Difference between intestinal infection and food poisoning. Poisoning or intestinal infection, how to distinguish? How to distinguish food poisoning from an intestinal infection

Most cases of poisoning are caused by the rapid proliferation of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli in food products. Poisoning is most often caused by low-quality products that have expired or those that were stored in inappropriate conditions or prepared in violation of sanitary standards.

Poisoning is also often caused by plants collected and consumed through ignorance or carelessness.

Test yourself

The first signs of poisoning may appear half an hour after eating low-quality foods, but most often after 4-6 hours, and sometimes after a day.

Typical symptoms of poisoning: diarrhea (watery, foul-smelling stools with undigested food residues), severe nausea, repeated vomiting.

Also characteristic are weakness, dizziness, fever, chills, heaviness or painful cramps in the stomach, flatulence, and excessive salivation.

Keep in mind

Most often, poisoning is caused by dairy and fermented milk products, cakes and pastries with cream, glazed cheese curds, soft cheese, boiled sausage, pates, eggs, homemade mayonnaise, salads dressed with mayonnaise or sour cream, tomatoes and tomato juice, soy sprouts.

First aid

At the first signs of food poisoning, the patient’s stomach should be rinsed to empty it. For rinsing, you can use a weak (pale pink) solution of potassium permanganate, filtered through a paper filter or four-layer gauze.

A solution of baking soda (1 teaspoon per 1 liter of boiled water) or table salt (2 level tablespoons per 5 liters of water) is also suitable.

The washing solution must be prepared in advance in the amount of 8-10 liters. It must be warm (temperature - 35-37 °C) in order to prevent hypothermia of the body, as well as slow down intestinal motility, which will slow down the movement of toxic substances through the gastrointestinal tract.

At the first dose, you need to drink from 2-3 to 5-6 glasses, then induce vomiting by irritating the root of the tongue with two fingers.

The washing procedure must be repeated until the flowing water is clean.

We must try to provide the patient with complete rest; if he is shivering, wrap him up warmly.

The first day it is better to abstain from food, on the second day you can introduce broth, pureed vegetable soups with rice, mucous decoctions, gradually expanding the menu. Until complete recovery, you should avoid pickled, spicy, salty and smoked foods that irritate the gastric mucosa. The patient is recommended to drink boiled water, weak sweet tea, berry fruit drinks, and jelly. Carbonated drinks are prohibited.

On a note

In case of poisoning, enterosorbents are taken. These drugs bind and remove toxins, poisons, germs and bacteria from the body, preventing toxic substances from entering the blood. They help relieve symptoms of poisoning and normalize a person’s condition.

To prevent dehydration caused by vomiting and diarrhea, special saline solutions are used to replenish fluid loss and restore the acid-base balance disturbed due to loss of electrolytes. They are usually produced in the form of powders, which must be diluted in a liter of hot boiled water. The resulting solution in an amount of 10 ml/kg body weight should be drunk after each loose stool in small sips, spreading the portion over an hour.

If diarrhea is accompanied by vomiting, then after each attack of vomiting an additional solution of 10 ml/kg of body weight should be taken.

By the way

In case of poisoning (including food poisoning, but especially with drugs or alcohol), the liver suffers, because it is this organ that has to neutralize toxins and remove them from the body. Hepatoprotective drugs - herbal or containing essential phospholipids - help restore normal liver function.

Also, to improve liver function, dietary supplements containing lecithin, amino acids, antioxidant vitamins A, C, E, selenium and chromium, and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are used.

To the doctor!

Most often, the symptoms of poisoning go away on their own within a week; only symptomatic treatment is sufficient. However, in some cases, poisoning is dangerous. Be sure to seek medical help if:

against the background of intestinal and gastric disorders, the patient experiences severe headache, pain in the kidneys, liver or other internal organs;
the patient has a high temperature, severe sweating, and a feeling of suffocation;
a small child or an elderly person has been poisoned;
there is a suspicion that you have been poisoned by mushrooms;
Severe vomiting and diarrhea persist for two days;
symptoms of poisoning last longer than a week.

SOS!

Particularly dangerous are poisonings from home-canned food, in which botulinum toxin has been formed due to improper preparation technologies, causing a serious disease - botulism.

Symptoms

: increasing muscle weakness, frequent shallow breathing, dilated pupils, muscle paresis or paralysis, dry mouth, vomiting, loose stools, visual impairment, speech impairment, lack of facial expressions, pale skin.

The muscles of the eyes and larynx are affected first, then the respiratory muscles. Botulism can be fatal, so if you suspect it, you should immediately call an ambulance.

Prevention

The best prevention of food poisoning is compliance with hygiene rules when preparing food, proper storage of food and basic vigilance.

Pay attention to the color, smell and taste of food. An unpleasant putrid smell, a sour taste, and a tingling sensation on the tongue should alert you. A sign that the product is spoiled may be a change in its consistency or the appearance of mucus on its surface.

Without regret, throw away moldy foods, spoiled vegetables and fruits, even if only a tiny barrel, swollen cans and bags of juices or dairy products have rotted.

A jar “rolled up” with an iron lid should open with a characteristic pop, indicating that it was sealed hermetically. If there was no cotton, the canned food should not be eaten.

When purchasing, be sure to check the production dates and shelf life of the products, and the integrity of the packaging.

Check your refrigerator regularly.

Do not buy ready-made salads dressed with mayonnaise: they spoil very quickly.

Observe the temperature conditions for cooking food.

Wash vegetables and fruits, dishes and cutlery, and hands thoroughly before eating and preparing food.

Before breaking an egg, wash it with soap.

Change kitchen towels and dishwashing sponges more often, because they accumulate pathogenic bacteria.

Get some cutting boards. Greens, vegetables and fruits, cheeses and sausages should not be cut on a board on which raw meat and fish were cut.

Do not store raw meat and fish and prepared foods in the same compartment of the refrigerator.

Don't prepare a lot of food for future use. Prepared foods should not be stored in the refrigerator for longer than three days.

Be picky when choosing food outlets.

Drugs

Remember, self-medication is life-threatening; consult a doctor for advice on the use of any medications.

Food infections and poisoning become causes of human illness. When there is a large accumulation of pathogenic microorganisms, the body is damaged in a large number of people. Understanding the problems of infection, you need to take into account all the risks and prevent diseases.

Infection problem

Food infections differ from poisoning in that microorganisms are easily transmitted to others if sanitary and hygienic standards are not observed. When the infection becomes widespread, the sick should be dealt with by specialists. Prevention should be carried out, especially if illnesses occurred in preschool and school institutions.

Dangerous conditions are when the body's strength declines. Human immunity allows others to pass through, creating favorable conditions for the acquisition of chronic diseases. Some infections can stay inside for a lifetime. Practical events made it possible to create morbidity statistics, according to which the main causes of infection were identified.

Basic definitions

Pathogenic microorganisms cause food infections depending on the type:

Bacteria dangerous to animals are zoonoses.
Causing ailments only in humans are anthroponoses.
Mixed types of microorganisms are zooanthroponoses; humans become infected with them from livestock.

Foodborne infections are different, depending on the pathogens that caused them:

zooanthroponoses provoke brucellosis, plague, anthrax;
anthroponoses cause dysentery, cholera, and typhoid fever.

Both animals and humans may not have symptoms of illness, but at the same time be carriers of infection. Often infection occurs through untested milk or meat.

Isolated ailments:

bacterial origin: food infection - toxicoinfection, intoxication - the result of consuming foods saturated with toxins;
non-bacterial.

You can only catch the infection from infected products. The person himself becomes a carrier. Most microorganisms can survive in air. While preserved, they do not reproduce. Only when they enter a living organism do they become active.

Sources of illness

Microorganisms that cause foodborne infections are not found in active form in food unless favorable conditions exist. As the temperature rises, bacteria begin to multiply. The following factors contribute to growth:

constant humidity;
the presence of fungi, fibers;
sweet environment is the best provocateur of infection;
toxins such as botulism can often be found in homemade canned meat and chicken;
milk, meat products, and sausage contain salmonella.

If you carefully check the listed products, you can avoid dangerous contamination. In these products, pathogenic organisms develop instantly at warm temperatures. Even an hour under the sun, meat and eggs become sources of infection. Food infections and poisoning occur at the same time.

They have distinctive features:

Pathogenic microorganisms after infection can be transmitted to surrounding people; poisoning occurs due to the accumulation of toxins in food;
infections are found in any product - spoiled and unspoiled;
a person can only be poisoned by stale food;
infections can settle in the human body for a long time, making themselves felt after a few days;
poisoning is observed immediately, within no more than three hours;

One product can make a large number of people feel ill at once.

General signs of infection

Feeling unwell several hours after eating may indicate poisoning. A food infection has entered the body. Symptoms of such conditions:

Dizziness.
Vomit.
Increased blood pressure.
Cramps in the abdominal area.
Gas formation in the intestines.
Diarrhea, general weakness of the body.

The patient experiences a set of such ailments when acute food infections are detected. Diarrhea can occur much later, it all depends on external factors and the concentration of pathogens in foods. The first sign of poisoning is lack of appetite. The stomach begins to swell. Painful conditions appear that get worse when walking.

After a few hours, an avalanche-like increase in intestinal spasms occurs. The person gets prolonged diarrhea. During this period, they fight against clinical symptoms. After the food infection has subsided, they try to record the symptoms and conduct a survey of the patient regarding the consumption of low-quality food.

In most cases, the general signs of illness are the same for all people. To establish the true cause of poisoning, laboratory tests of the biomaterial will be required. Without such a procedure, no doctor will be able to make a correct diagnosis.

Pathogenic microorganisms in milk

The most common cases of food infections are observed in cases of poisoning with low-quality milk and its derivatives. The case most often concerns home-made products; factories still carry out periodic monitoring. Based on the test results, the animal whose milk has changed in its physical and chemical composition is determined:

When suffering from tuberculosis, an increase in the amount of fat and a decrease in protein units are observed. The milk tastes salty.
The disease brucellosis is less noticeable, the milk remains the same.
Complications of leukemia lead to an increase in fat and dry matter. Casein and lactose are reduced. A huge number of leukocytes are found in a sick animal.
When suffering from foot and mouth disease, milk does not sit well in curdled milk. Leukocytes and the amount of fat increase. The drink tastes bitter, the animal reduces production.
A disease such as mastitis also spoils dairy products. There is an increase in leukocytes in milk.

Toxic infections produce symptoms similar to those of poisoning, but they are easily transmitted to others. Microorganisms multiply inside foods and in the human body. This ailment is easy to confuse and will require a full examination to make an accurate diagnosis.

Contaminated milk is distinguished by the following feature: the shape of fat globules on the surface of the liquid. Rounded features indicate normal health of the pet. Pathological figures from blurring indicate a change in composition. However, the analysis takes into account the seasonality of the measurements taken, as well as the conditions under which the cow is kept.

Type of illness

Foodborne viral infections can be caused by a variety of viruses. They are contagious not only to others, but also to the sick person himself. Bacteria spread throughout internal organs. They enter the stomach, intestines, and settle in the upper respiratory tract.

An ascending infection may occur when the lungs and then the bronchial system are affected. Rotavirus lesions of internal organs are the most common. Vivid symptoms include intestinal upset and general malaise. Diarrhea gives way to gas and constipation. Body temperature often rises, and a red throat is observed. There is no pain when swallowing food. Feverish spasms occur in the body.

The following types of infections are distinguished:

Listed group A rotaviruses.
Enteroviruses.
Reoviruses.
Adenoviruses.

All groups are established through laboratory tests. The principles of treatment are practically the same, but individual therapy is selected for each infection. An important step on the path to cure is to determine the source of the disease and completely eliminate it. All of the above types have special vitality inside watery accumulations. Some species even withstand heat and chemical treatment.

How do they get infected?

Foodborne intestinal infections have common routes of transmission to a healthy person:

Violation of terms of production and storage of food products.
Failure to comply with sanitary and hygienic rules, this often occurs in young children.
Lack of monitoring of the body’s condition after attending public events, before entering school or kindergarten.
The only way to poison a person is through oral penetration of microbes. Microorganisms enter the intestines only through the mouth. They develop inside the thin section, constantly descending further.
The feces of a sick person contain more than a million pathogenic microbes. Therefore, during the period of exacerbation of infection, it is recommended to focus on sanitary and hygienic procedures.

Dirty hands have always carried foodborne infections. Diseases were more often found in sloppy people, as well as in young children due to their lack of understanding of the importance of the problem or the irresponsible behavior of their parents. Less commonly, the infection is transmitted by airborne droplets.

Outbreaks of infectious poisonings are observed through direct contact with domestic animals in rural areas. Epidemics occur in the spring-autumn period. Active forms of viruses and bacteria remain inside food for a long time. If products are stored and processed improperly, pathogenic microorganisms begin to grow.

Adenoviruses remain after the patient on personal items, dishes, and in bed. For inflammation accompanied by acute ailments in the intestines, it is better to adhere to strict sanitation rules.

Exacerbation phase

Acute periods of the disease are characterized by a decrease in a person’s general well-being. Advanced stages of poisoning even led to deaths. Medical assistance must be provided in a timely manner. The last resort measure to save the patient’s life is to wash the stomach and intestines with special solutions.

After the procedure, pathogenic microorganisms are removed along with beneficial ones. Therefore, to return healthy microflora, powerful therapy is used throughout the entire recovery period. The most powerful period of complications occurs on the first day after infection. If the symptoms do not subside for more than 7 days, then the patient requires mandatory hospitalization and urgent therapy to destroy the pathogens.

All poisonings occur against the background of a high body temperature of more than 38 degrees. The patient complains of chills, feverish manifestations, and failure to accept fresh food. He will need to follow a diet and take medications. Vomiting conditions are combined with constant diarrhea. Not every person is able to withstand this, so most victims prefer to experience their illness in a clinic.

Pain sensations occur in the head, stomach, and lower abdomen. A cough, something like a sore throat, or an allergic attack may develop. All inflammatory processes are accompanied by exacerbation in the lymphatic system. The nodes swell noticeably. At this moment, being near the patient can be dangerous; the infection is easily transmitted through household objects.

How to fight: general methods

Prevention of foodborne infections begins with compliance with sanitary and hygienic rules for keeping livestock. They carefully choose food products, trusting only trusted manufacturers. In the warm season, pay special attention to the change in color of fresh meat to dark tones.

It is not recommended to use expired food even as frying ingredients. Boiled meat is safest to eat, but it cannot be stored for long. Affected products are destroyed; simple disposal into the soil will lead to an outbreak of poisoning in the area.

Viruses are not only resistant to chemicals in meat, but also persist during frying. According to disease statistics, the peak of infections and food poisoning occurs in the summer. Hot weather promotes the proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms.

Medicinal types of control

To eliminate acute complications, foodborne infections are suppressed with drugs. Treatment is prescribed immediately at the first signs of intoxication. Pharmacy products are designed to reduce the concentration of pathogens in the intestines. Patients are immediately prescribed plenty of warm drinks and medications: activated carbon, Polysorb, Enerosgel. They absorb bacteria and viruses and exit the body naturally.

In case of mild poisoning, it is recommended to call for removal of undigested food. A weak solution of potassium permanganate is used to lavage the stomach. A few glasses of the product help to naturally cleanse the body. Modern drugs have a similar effect: “Gastrolit”, “Regidron”.

The prescription of powerful antibiotics should be carried out only after a complete examination of the body by laboratory methods in the clinic. An incorrectly selected remedy will lead to a subsequent outbreak of another inflammation or infection of loved ones. There are symptoms of a food infection, after the appearance of which it is impossible to delay hospitalization. These include blood in the stool, paroxysmal cough, body temperature above 39 degrees, loss of consciousness and delirium.

An intestinal infection (or rotavirus) is often mistaken for food poisoning. This is because the main symptoms are very similar. In both cases, a person suffers from nausea, abdominal pain, profuse vomiting and diarrhea. But there are also distinctive signs that do not allow these two completely different diseases to be confused.

Not all the remedies we are used to treating stomach disorders can effectively help with a viral disease. Some medications can even make the situation worse. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the characteristic symptoms of the disease, and then choose treatment methods, be it pharmaceutical drugs or traditional recipes.

Symptoms and hallmarks

The clinical picture of food poisoning and intestinal infection actually has many of the same signs. However, there are also symptoms that can help distinguish diseases from each other:

An intestinal infection is a viral disease that simultaneously has signs of food poisoning and ARVI. That is, phenomena such as a runny nose, dry cough, and high temperature may be observed.
Rotavirus affects all mucous membranes of the body, not just the stomach. Therefore, a red throat and eyes indicate the presence of the virus. Conjunctivitis or constantly watery eyes are often observed, which does not happen with simply a violation of the functions of the stomach.
The character of the stool also differs. In case of poisoning, loose diarrhea occurs for one or two days, after which the stool returns to normal. During a viral illness, clay-like grayish discharge is possible on the second day, or blood appears in watery diarrhea (in the most severe cases).
Rotavirus often affects the color of urine. It becomes much darker and has a pungent odor reminiscent of ammonia. With gastric problems, such phenomena, as a rule, do not occur.
There are some distinctive signs even during the incubation period of the disease. During poisoning, nausea and vomiting are preceded by severe “grumbling” and bloating. And the virus often causes preliminary severe incontinence of gases that have a very pungent putrefactive odor.

In addition to the above, you should pay attention to the well-being of people around the patient. The virus “kills” family members one by one as they become infected. If vomiting and diarrhea appeared in everyone at the same time, then the cause should be sought in the food products that the victims consumed.

Anti-poisoning drugs

Treatment of poisoning is carried out in several directions at once:

gastric lavage and removal of toxins;
combating dehydration;
relief of pain and discomfort;
restoration of gastric microflora and intestinal function.

At the first signs of intestinal poisoning, the stomach is washed. The patient is given plenty of fluids until the vomit becomes clear.

To remove toxins from the body, one of the sorbents is used:

It is important to know: due to excessive vomiting and diarrhea, the body becomes dehydrated, and this can have serious consequences. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids, for example, still mineral water or saline solution.

The drug "Regidron" is excellent at combating dehydration. The contents of one package are diluted in a liter of water and drunk a glass every 2-3 hours. It is necessary to consume at least one liter of this solution during the first 12 hours, and then distribute another liter per day for three days.

If you have severe abdominal pain, you can take an antispasmodic. For example, no-shpu. The maximum daily dose for an adult is 8 tablets of 40 mg (the medicine is taken in 3-4 doses of 2 tablets), for a teenager - 4 tablets, for children from 6 to 12 years old - 2 tablets.

After vomiting and diarrhea have stopped, treatment is carried out aimed at restoring the microflora of the stomach and normal intestinal function. Linux helps a lot. The course of treatment is about five days. Adults and teenagers drink 2 capsules three times a day, small children and newborns drink 1 capsule 2-3 times a day. For ease of swallowing, you can pour the contents of the capsule into a glass of warm water.

Drugs to combat rotavirus

Treatment of intestinal infection is essentially the same as that used during poisoning. In the same way, the stomach is washed, sorbents and medications are taken to normalize intestinal function.

You can take Sorbiogel as a sorbent (a teaspoon in a glass of warm water) every 3 hours. The drug quickly calms vomiting in viral intestinal diseases and removes toxins.

Recommendation: be very careful with astringents such as Lopedium or Immodium. They cope well with diarrhea from food poisoning, but can cause complications with rotavirus.

During the recovery period, drink “Hilak Forte” or similar drugs containing enzymes. It takes 5 to 10 days to restore the stomach microflora. The drug is taken with meals, 3 times a day. 35-40 drops (for adults) or 15-25 (for children) are dripped into water or tea.

Very important:

If you have rotavirus, you should not take painkillers or antipyretics. These medications may worsen vomiting. In difficult cases, it is better to call an ambulance. Doctors will promptly help bring down the temperature and reduce colic with intramuscular injections.
An antibiotic or intestinal antiseptic, if needed, is prescribed exclusively by a doctor. Taking potent drugs without a prescription is strictly not recommended.

Traditional methods

For mild cases of food poisoning or intestinal infections, there is no need to rush to buy medications at pharmacies. As an alternative, you can use home remedies that are no less effective:

During the period of recovery of the body after poisoning or intestinal infection, the diet is strictly followed: in the first days, chicken broth, rye bread crackers, and boiled potatoes are allowed. After a few days, depending on the patient’s well-being, it is allowed to eat steamed cutlets, hard-boiled eggs and yogurt.

Low-fat fermented milk products are necessary to restore the flora of the stomach, but you should start consuming them carefully, 1-2 tablespoons per day.

Prevention

Intestinal infection or food poisoning can be avoided by following safety precautions:

wash your hands frequently and do not use other people’s cutlery, especially during periods of epidemics;
wash vegetables and fruits thoroughly under running water and buy only fresh, high-quality products.

Rotavirus is especially active in the summer. You can easily become infected with it through a handshake, touching handrails in public transport, etc. But if you wash your hands thoroughly, the risk of getting the infection into the oral cavity is reduced.

Eating food that is not only contaminated with infection will lead to the development of acute diseases of the digestive system. Sometimes it is enough to eat a small amount of fresh food with an unexpired shelf life, and the disease will still affect the stomach or intestines. Such diseases are essentially similar, but at first glance there are still minor differences.

How to distinguish food poisoning from an intestinal infection? The difference is not only in the pathogen, there are several key ways in which these disease processes differ.

What are intestinal infections

Intestinal infections are a broad group of diseases, including some acute infectious diseases caused by the following pathogens:

The main symptom that unites all these diseases is the development of acute inflammation of one of the parts of the gastrointestinal tract due to infection with some infectious agent. That is, the main role here is played by microorganisms - bacteria or viruses. Each of them affects its own section of the digestive system. As a rule, this is the stomach, small or large intestine, which they have yet to “reach”. Therefore, most often infections develop several hours later, and in some cases more than a day after infection.

What is food poisoning

Food poisoning is an acute short-term disease, the development of which involves opportunistic microorganisms or their metabolic products - toxins. So, it often happens that after a long stay of the finished product in improper conditions (in the sun, or a day without a refrigerator), some microorganisms begin to multiply and release harmful particles - toxins. Normally, small amounts of these bacteria or viruses do not cause harm to humans. But after death or in a certain critical quantity, they cause food poisoning.

How is food poisoning different from an intestinal infection? In case of food poisoning, the pathogen itself may be absent, that is, the bacteria may die during heat treatment, but their toxins lead to intoxication. Often these are ready-made products purchased in culinary shops or cafeterias. Another category of products is two- or three-day soups, dishes left over from a party. The first dishes, despite repeated boiling, are already contaminated with microorganisms. Repeated heat treatment will kill the bacteria, but after destruction, their metabolic products remain, which are more resistant to high temperatures and cannot be destroyed in the usual way.

An example could be:

clostridia;
proteus;
staphylococcus;
Klebsiella and many other microorganisms that produce enterotoxins.

Food poisoning and intestinal infections are equally unpleasant diseases that bring a lot of trouble to health. Sometimes, from the first symptoms, without examination by a specialist and the appointment of special tests, it is difficult to determine what a person is infected with. After all, food poisoning and intestinal infections are very similar.

After such a description of each type of disease, it becomes unclear what their differences are. What is more severe: acute intestinal infection or food poisoning? It all depends on the specific case. Despite the same manifestations, there are also significant differences.

What is the difference between food poisoning and intestinal infection?

Sometimes even an experienced doctor finds it difficult to determine what disease a person has the first time. But in medicine, special research methods help: bacterial cultures and general tests. Ordinary people do not have the opportunity to determine at home what disease they are susceptible to. Therefore, you need to know the typical distinguishing features of each process.

A final and complete diagnosis can be made only after examination in a hospital setting. People suspected of severe food poisoning or an intestinal infection should be hospitalized in the infectious diseases department for full treatment.

Food poisoning and infections can imitate each other, hiding behind the same symptoms. In rare cases, you can immediately determine their differences on your own. This will require time, which a person often does not have. Therefore, at the first signs of any of these diseases, it is better to immediately consult a specialist.

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The symptoms of intestinal poisoning and food poisoning have few differences, and it can be difficult for an uninitiated person to distinguish food poisoning from infectious. And yet, each of them has its own clinical features and differences, which you need to know about in order to correctly provide first aid to the patient. How to distinguish poisoning from an intestinal infection will be discussed in our article.

Symptoms of intestinal intoxication

Poisoning can occur when toxins enter the digestive tract with poor-quality food - stale, spoiled, improperly prepared, various marinades and canned food, as well as various chemicals.

Common symptoms of food poisoning are:

cramping abdominal pain (colic);
nausea and vomiting;
lack of appetite;
dry mouth;
headache, dizziness;
severe general weakness;
cardiopalmus;
decreased blood pressure;
increased breathing;
chills, increased body temperature (not typical for all poisonings).

The time for symptoms to appear from the moment toxins enter the body is very short - from several minutes to several hours.

Signs of infectious intestinal poisoning

Symptoms are caused by the body's reaction to the inflammatory process in the digestive tract.

Signs of infectious poisoning appear as follows:

high temperature rise, up to 40°, accompanied by fever, chills;
nausea, repeated vomiting;
frequent loose stools, it may have a specific smell, foamy consistency, green color, and contain an admixture of blood;

tenesmus in the abdomen– painful cramping pain, decreasing after stool and reappearing after a while;
general condition disorder– severe weakness, physical inactivity, dizziness;
pallor and dry skin.

From the moment the infectious agent enters the body until the first symptoms appear, it can take from several hours to several days, and sometimes the incubation period is about a month.

How is rotavirus different from an intestinal infection?

How to distinguish between poisoning or rotavirus infection? The latter is essentially an intestinal infection, but it is caused not by bacteria, but by a special type of virus.

Children are more often exposed to this effect due to the fact that they do not yet have a strong enough immune system.

Infection can occur not only through food, but also through airborne droplets through direct contact with a patient.

Viral poisoning is manifested by the following symptoms:

increased body temperature, usually up to 38°;
frequent loose stools, while the diarrhea is not very pronounced - up to 4-8 times a day;
loss of appetite;
swelling of the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx, as with rhinovirus infection.
headache;
feeling of nausea;

Symptoms of general intoxication (weakness, dizziness) are not very pronounced, the child can still be active and play as usual.

The difference between infectious and food poisoning

To find out what exactly happened to the patient, what is the cause of the health disorders that have arisen, you need to know the difference between poisoning and intestinal infection and the characteristics of clinical manifestations.

Poisoning is characterized by a short incubation period. The general symptoms of intoxication are more pronounced - headache, disorders of the cardiovascular system, breathing, muscle weakness, headache, and there may even be disturbances in orientation and vision. An increase in body temperature is not typical for all types of poisoning, and in some types it even decreases.

First aid to a patient

Providing first aid for food and infectious poisoning has both general measures and its own characteristics.

General measures are gastric lavage, removal of toxins from the body in case of poisoning or intestinal infection with appropriate means (sorbents): activated carbon, polysorb, polyphelan, smecta and other modern sorbents. Medicines for poisoning or intestinal infection will help relieve the main syndromes, prevent the development of complications and improve well-being.

Also, in all cases, drink plenty of fluids. to replenish fluid and electrolyte losses due to vomiting and diarrhea. Good for poisoning or intestinal infection drugs containing mineral salts and glucose, which is capable of removing toxins from the body (rehydron, galactin, glucosolan and analogues).

The differences are as follows:

Recommended for poisoning laxatives and cleansing enema to quickly remove toxins. This cannot be done with an intestinal infection, regardless of its nature - bacterial, fungal or viral. Stimulating already frequent bowel movements can lead to a worsening of the condition - the development of spasms of the inflamed intestines, increased pain, increased fluid loss;
If infectious poisoning is suspected the patient must be isolated from contact with other people, especially children, given separate dishes, and all manipulations with him must be carried out using rubber gloves;

If it is a mild rotavirus infection, you need to call a doctor at home, and in case of poisoning or intestinal infection, emergency medical care and hospitalization are necessary.

If the temperature rises due to poisoning, it is not recommended to give medications to reduce it, the reaction can be unpredictable, and for an intestinal infection, if the temperature exceeds 38°, especially in children, you can give an antipyretic drug (paracetamol, aspirin).

Features and differences of treatment of poisoning

When treating poisoning, an integrated approach is used; it is imperative to take sorbents and means to prevent dehydration; the choice of other medications depends on the symptoms that accompany intoxication. In the treatment of intestinal poisoning and food poisoning, there are both general measures and specifics, depending on the established cause and severity of the disease.

The common ones are:

Removing intoxication;
Replenishment of water and electrolyte balance;
Restoration of organ function;
Increased immunity;
A gentle diet.

In case of poisoning, as a rule, treatment is carried out in a hospital setting, an antidote of the toxic substance is administered, if available, infusion and detoxification therapy, stimulation of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, and oxygen therapy are carried out.