Stomach Flu and Food Poisoning
Stomach flu is a different condition than food poisoning. Stomach flu is the result of different viral infections to the intestinal tract. It is also called viral Gastroenteritis. Food poisoning is the direct result of eating food which is contaminated by bacteria. Generally, it's hard to differentiate between the symptoms of stomach flu and food poisoning, as many of them are similar in both cases.
Many times, when people suffer from food poisoning, they experience the symptoms like diarrhea, nausea, stomach pains and vomiting. These are the common symptoms that can be seen in the patients of stomach flu.
What is Food Poisoning?
Food poisoning causes due to toxins. When foods are not handled or maintained properly, bacteria grows in it, and these bacteria produce this toxin. These bacteria develop on foods in short period, especially foods like dairy products, sauces and meat. If these types of foods are not kept below 40 degrees, bacteria develop on it immediately.
There are some indicators that help you to identify whether a person is infected by food poisoning or from any other disease:
- If some people have taken the same food and have developed similar types of symptoms then this can be due to food poisoning. This poisoning is the result of improper storage of foods.
- Symptoms of standard types of food poisoning start developing after two hours and can be seen after 48 hours after person consume the food.
- These symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea and nausea that may continue for two days in some cases.
What is Stomach Flu?
This condition of stomach flu is the result of different viruses that differ from the viruses that causes the normal influenza. It is known as the gastroenteritis that has symptoms of irritation and other symptoms similar to the food poisoning symptoms. These viruses attack the intestinal tract. This situation finally leads to the severe pains and diarrhea for a few days.
It is difficult for the doctors to identify whether the patient is suffering from the food poisoning or the stomach flu, as they both causes similar effects to the patient. You can determine it by checking whether many people have taken the same food and experiencing the similar symptoms or these people belong to the same place.
In some of the cases, doctors can detect whether it is the stomach flu or food poisoning by performing the tests and examination over the cultures taken from the stool of the patient. If the patient is experiencing the severe symptoms and has some medical history of stomach flu, this type of test is performed to confirm the disease.
In most of these types of cases, similar treatments are followed to control these symptoms. These treatments include complete bed rest and drinking fluids. Anti-biotic medicines are also used for treating the patients of stomach flu and food poisoning.
However, stomach cancer and food poisoning are different in their causes, but most of the symptoms and treatments are similar. Hence, many people often get confused while determining from which disease they are suffering.
