I had been planning on writing about how businesses react to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses related to their products this week. But in the early morning hours on Saturday, I was graphically reminded of the toll that foodborne illness takes on all of us. My 14-year-old son, Mack, woke up at 3:30 a.m. with painful stomach cramps and vomiting. Now, it could have been a virus, but I don’t think so. A bit of research led me to conclude that it was probably food poisoning. The symptoms of food poisoning are usually identical to the symptoms of a gastrointestinal virus, so besides having a doctor run tests on a stool sample, the only way to know is based on the circumstances surrounding the illness. The first clue was that no one else in the house was sick, or has gotten sick since, even though we have been in close contact with him. The second clue is that by a stroke of coincidence, no one else in the house ate any of the same food that Mack ate on Friday. The bus driver treated the high school kids to donuts because the middle school kids were off on Friday. He ate lunch at school, which is the norm. And because my husband and I were dining out for our anniversary, we gave him some cash and permission to “make a run for the border,” so to speak.
Nine hours after his fast-food feast, he woke shivering and vomiting. After we had to strip his bed to wash the linens, he moved into our bed and my husband moved to the couch. At one point Mack opted to lie on the bathroom floor with a beach towel as a blanket instead of in our bed because he didn’t think he could make the bathroom when he vomited. Yep, it was as bad as it sounds. He finally stopped vomited around noon on Saturday, but he still didn’t feel well. Fever, body aches and a headache are other symptoms of both a “stomach bug” and a foodborne illness, and he had all of them. The treatment for both is the same: fluids, rest, fever reducers, and “supportive care” (baby them.) Only severe cases need the attention of a physician. Which begs the question, how does food poisoning get reported? According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), most counties request that doctors and hospitals report outbreaks of foodborne illness. Okay, but what about the people who don’t have symptoms severe enough to warrant a trip to the doctor or hospital?
The CDC also recommends that people who believe that they are part of an “outbreak of food borne illness” to contact their local health department. I’ve no way of knowing if my son’s illness is part of an outbreak since I don’t know who else may have eaten the offending fast food. But since I live in Greene County, I decided to see if I should take any reporting action. Turns out I could report my son’s bout of foodborne illness myself by filling out two forms and mailing them to the Greene County Combined Health District. My son would have to be able to reconstruct every single thing he ate for the past week, so I don’t think we will bother. I have to wonder how many other people either don’t know if it is a stomach virus or food poisoning, or just don’t bother reporting milder cases. The CDC assumes under reporting when compiling statistics about food borne illness, but some feel those estimates (76 million illnesses, 323,914 hospitalizations, and 5,194 deaths each year) are inaccurate. The good news is that since the CDC compiled those statistics, there has been a decrease in the number of reported cases of foodborne illness. I’m just glad my son’s bout with food poisoning was mild enough so he didn’t become a statistic.
As usual, another good, informative post. That had to have been a rude wakeup call, so to speak. How often do we ask ourselves, or comment, if someone in the house becomes ill, to the effect that it "must have been something they ate" if we don't have the same symptoms, or "must be a bug going around." I wasn't aware that to report something like that, even in milder cases, that a complete food history was necessary. That is a cumbersome task to ask anyone to complete. With some of the eating routines of some family members, especially in the teen population, with either the fast food or "junk food" they consume, remembering for a whole week could be a major undertaking. No wonder you opted not to bother. The stats you provided over what gets reported in a year's time are really something else. Again, a real eye opener. Thanks for all the info.
ReplyDeleteO my that is terrible. I remember several years back, my dad's old job had a banquet and he took my older brother. They had food poisoning from I believe the salad or coleslaw. My next door neighbor went with his wife and they both had food poisoning. They couldn't get to the door, or anything so we had to jump their fence to see if there were ok and call an ambulance. Apparently almost all the employers that ate the coleslaw got food poisoning. It was dreadful. I can imagine what your son went through. Food poisoning is deadly
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