Andrea Earnest, Contributor
Pictured above: Monico Chavez, aviation major, enjoys his chips.
News reports are often riddled with stories about recalls of certain foods or an outbreak of a foodborne illness. No one seems to realize that foodborne illnesses can affect everyone, even if you think the food you are eating is prepared or cooked correctly.
Recently at Lewis, Biology Assistant Professor James Rago gave a lecture for the Food for Thought series about foodborne illnesses. He addressed six of the most common foodborne illnesses and how to prevent coming in contact with them.
The norovirus is sometimes confused with the stomach flu, and it is a common viral pathogen.
“The norovirus has been known to spread through contact with inanimate objects,” said Rago. “In some cases, the virus has even gone airborne.”
The norovirus has a short incubation period, which is the period of time before a person starts showing symptoms of the illness. The norovirus has a low infectious dose, which means that it doesn’t take a lot of pathogens to make a person sick.
“You get exposed to two to five of these pathogens; that’s enough to make the average person sick,” said Rago. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, and in some rare cases, a person can be hospitalized.
Hepatitis A is another common virus in America. It is most commonly transmitted when the people who prepare food don’t wash their hands.
Hepatitis A also has a low infectious dose, and it has flu-like symptoms.
“The signs and symptoms of this can be so mild, the person may not notice [they have Hepatitis A],” said Rago. A vaccine called Havrix is sometimes recommended for those people who eat out often.
Salmonella is a common bacteria that a lot of people have heard of and probably associate with eating raw cookie dough. However, a person can get salmonella from meats, eggs, dairy and vegetables.
The food becomes infected because “runoff from farms is oftentimes used as fertilizer for crops,” said Rago.
Salmonella has a high infectious dose.
“You ingest 100,000 pathogens — and that’s not enough [to make you sick],” said Rago.
There are variable symptoms of salmonella, but the most common are vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration. The most common treatment for salmonella is electrolyte replacement; antibiotics are usually avoided.
E. coli is another common infectious disease that Rago talked about in his presentation. The most common strain of E. coli is the O157:H7 strain.
“If this toxin gets in your system, it will cause your cells to dump their electrolytes,” said Rago.
E. coli is mostly found on beef or produce. The symptoms include fever and bloody diarrhea. E. coli could possibly spread to the kidneys and cause some damage there as well. Supportive therapy, such as rest and rehydration, is used, and antibiotics are discouraged.
Campylobacter is a common bacteria and gastrointestinal infection in the U.S.
“If you’ve had a full-blown bacterial food poisoning in the United States, this is probably what you’ve had,” said Rago. Rehydration is key to getting over campylobacter, but the bacteria can last for weeks.
Cholera is one of the most prevalent infectious disease worldwide. There are clinics set up in certain countries by the World Health Organization to get people rehydrated because cholera is such a problem.
Cholera is a toxin that will rapidly dehydrate a person. It isn’t as common in countries like the U.S. because the filtration systems are more advanced.
“You’re not going to only lose water, but minuscule pieces of your GI tract,” said Rago. Cholera has a high infectious dose. There is a vaccine offered to protect against cholera, but it’s only a short-term protection.
Rago’s presentation stressed the importance of taking foodborne illnesses seriously. Any food a person eats could possibly be infected, but with the right prevention methods, foodborne illnesses can be avoided or recognized before infection occurs.
Andrea Earnest
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