Food poisoning caused by Salmonella

　　1. Source of Infection:Salmonella primarily uses animals as its reservoir hosts, including poultry such as chickens, ducks, and geese, as well as livestock such as pigs, cattle, sheep, and horses; wild animals such as rodents and mammals can also carry the bacteria. Patients and asymptomatic carriers can also serve as sources of infection.

　　2. Modes of transmission

　　1. Foodborne transmission:It is the main route for causing human Salmonella infection.

　　2. Waterborne transmission:Salmonella can contaminate water sources through the feces of animals and humans, and infection can occur by drinking such wastewater.

　　3. Direct contact or transmission through contaminated utensils:Salmonella can be transmitted directly from patients or through contaminated utensils.

　　3. Susceptibility of the population:The general population is susceptible to Salmonella, and the outcome after infection is related to the virulence of the strain and the host's immune status.

　　Bacteria can occasionally enter the blood circulation, causing bacteremia, sepsis, and localized suppurative infection foci.

　　1. Bacteremia:It refers to the bacteria from the outside entering the blood system through the entry of the body surface or infected entry, reproducing and spreading throughout the body in the human blood. The consequences are very serious. Generally, catheters or surgical openings on the body surface are prone to cause bacteremia. Patients with bacteremia often develop acute metastatic infections in multiple organs and various acute infection symptoms. Once suspected, blood tests should be taken immediately, and once diagnosed, treatment should be initiated immediately for the infecting bacteria, without wasting any time.

　　2. Sepsis:It is caused by pathogenic bacteria entering the blood circulation and growing and reproducing there, producing toxins, leading to systemic infection. It is prone to occur when the body's resistance is reduced. Clinically, it is mainly manifested by chills, high fever, toxicemia symptoms, rash, joint pain, enlargement of the liver and spleen, infectious shock, migratory foci, etc. The vast majority of cases present an acute course, with severe illness and poor prognosis. It is further believed that sepsis is a series of cascading reactions triggered by the activation and release of inflammatory mediators after pathogenic bacteria and their toxins and metabolites enter the blood stream.

　　3. Localized suppurative infection:It mainly includes boils, carbuncles, acute cellulitis, erysipelas, acute lymphangitis, and acute lymphadenitis and abscesses.

　　The incubation period of Salmonella food poisoning can range from as short as 2 hours to as long as 72 hours, with an average of 12 to 24 hours. There are mainly three types of manifestations, namely gastrointestinal type, typhoid type, and septicemia type. The gastrointestinal type is the most common. The prodromal symptoms include chills, headache, dizziness, nausea, and spasmodic abdominal pain, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, general malaise, or fever. Diarrhea can occur up to 7 to 8 times a day. The body temperature ranges from 38 to 40℃, and the course of the disease is about 3 to 5 days. Generally, diarrhea stops and body temperature returns to normal in 2 to 3 days, and the general condition improves. Severe cases, especially in children, the elderly, and the weak, often lead to dehydration, acidosis, anuria, heart failure, and other complications due to inadequate emergency treatment, which may be life-threatening.

　　The prevention of this disease mainly focuses on paying attention to food hygiene and strengthening the management of meat and other food.

　　1. Pay attention to food hygiene, do not eat the meat and internal organs of sick, dead livestock and poultry, and do not drink unboiled water. Animal foods such as meat and its products should be thoroughly cooked before consumption.

　　2. Strengthen food hygiene management, and attention should be paid to the health inspection and drinking water disinfection management of departments such as abattoirs, meat transportation, and food factories. Eliminate flies, cockroaches, and rats. Improve the hygiene of the canteen and establish and implement a dietary hygiene management system.

　　3. Isolate and treat patients in a timely manner, and carriers or chronic carriers during the recovery period should not engage in the food service industry.

　　4. Prevent hospital-acquired infections. Hospitals, especially delivery rooms, pediatric wards, and infectious disease wards, should prevent the spread of infections within the ward. Once found, thorough disinfection should be carried out.

　　5. Prohibit the use of antibiotics related to humans on farm animals in animal husbandry to increase the opportunity for drug resistance.

　　1. Blood routine.

　　2. Pathogenic examination:It has diagnostic value. Culturing the patient's vomit, feces, blood, or pus from local lesions can detect the pathogen.

　　3. Serological examination:The agglutination titer of the patient's serum against the somatic antigen (O antigen) of the pathogen or closely related species is increased, and it is of diagnostic significance if it is greater than or equal to 1:160, or if the titer of double serum increases by more than 4 times.

　　What should not be eaten for Salmonella food poisoning

　　Pay attention to food hygiene, do not eat the meat and offal of sick, dead livestock and poultry, and do not drink raw water. Animal foods such as meat and its products should be cooked thoroughly before eating. Avoid greasy, difficult to digest and irritant foods

　　(The above information is for reference only, for details please consult a doctor)

　　1. General treatment:Rest in bed, isolation at the bedside. Early administration of easily digestible liquid or semi-liquid diet, and gradually return to normal diet after the condition improves.

　　2. Symptomatic treatment:For those with obvious vomiting and abdominal pain, atropine 0.5mg can be administered subcutaneously or propoxyphene 15-30mg orally. For those who cannot eat or have frequent diarrhea due to severe vomiting, intravenous infusion of normal saline or 5% glucose saline is recommended.

　　3. Pathogen treatment:Simple gastroenteritis does not generally require antibiotic treatment. Because the use of antibacterial drugs cannot change the course of the disease, it is more likely to promote the production of intestinal drug-resistant strains, thereby extending the time of excretion of bacteria.