** Dr. Naila Darwish: The majority of poisonings are from restaurants

With the beginning of the hot summer, which is the longest season of the year, many diseases and health problems that people of different ages are exposed to emerge. Among the most famous of these diseases is the name of food poisoning, although the term is not medical, but it is common, and it is called to describe the symptoms that afflict a person or group of People are the result of eating contaminated food, while specialists know these symptoms medically in another term, “foodborne illness.” And medically speaking, all people are at risk of developing food poisoning at least once in their lives.

In order to shed light on this disease and educate society about its seriousness within the plans undertaken by the Primary Health Care Foundation to increase health awareness among the public, Dr. Naela Darwish, Director of Umm Salal Health Center, spoke to us, where she said at the beginning of her comprehensive dialogue about the most dangerous summer diseases that food poisoning occurs as a result Contamination of food with bacteria, parasites, viruses or their toxins. This contamination may occur at any stage of food preparation or production.

qatar airways

She adds that the summer and with the rise in temperature are hot and humid environments, the ideal environment for the multiplication of germs, and thus food contamination increases with it, and that the summer is the vacation period for the majority of people, where travel, entertainment and going out to eat in restaurants, although the majority of poisoning cases occur from Eating food in restaurants, poisoning can also occur through eating food at home, when health conditions are not available in its preparation and preparation.

On the symptoms of food poisoning, Dr. Naela Darwish said that the symptoms of food poisoning can begin within hours of eating contaminated food, and in some cases the symptoms may begin within days of eating it, and the symptoms may take one or more of the following signs: nausea, diarrhea, vomiting Or pain in the abdomen and sometimes fever. These symptoms may last from hours to several days, and some cases require going to the doctor, and the strength or weakness of symptoms depends on the amount of contaminated food that has been eaten, as well as on the age of the person with food poisoning and his health condition.

People exposed to poisoning

On the subject of people exposed to poisoning, she said that some groups are more susceptible to food poisoning than others. Dr. Naela Darwish said that they are five categories: the elderly, pregnant women, infants, young children, those with chronic diseases and those who take antibiotics, and if we talked about the elderly, we can say that With age, the immune system may not respond quickly and effectively to infectious organisms. As for pregnant women, during pregnancy, some changes occur in the metabolism and blood circulation, which may increase the risk of food poisoning, and the woman’s reaction during pregnancy may be more severe. .As for the category of infants and young children, the most important problems lie in their immune systems, as they are not fully developed, and with regard to people who suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes, liver disease, or receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy for cancer, they have an immune response, and the last of these categories Those who are most susceptible to poisoning people who take antibiotics for a disease because they reduce the beneficial and friendly bacteria of the digestive system.

And about treatment at home for most of the infected people, the symptoms of food poisoning disappear without treatment and on their own within a few days, and it usually does not need any medical assistance, but the patient has to rest and rest a lot of fluids to compensate for the loss of fluids in the body due to Vomiting and diarrhea, stop eating for a few hours, until the stomach stabilizes and then gradually return to eating while eating small meals of foods that can be easily digested such as toast, bananas, apples, rice, and soup. Also, you should stop eating fatty foods rich in spices and coffee, as well as the patient Food poisoning, urination control, if the urine is clear and not dark, this indicates that the patient has sufficient fluids, and it is not generally recommended to take medications that help relieve diarrhea.

LEAVE A REPLY