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Avoiding food poisoning

by Dr. Sarah Brewer
There's nothing worse than being struck down by a bout of the trots while on holiday. Dr. Sarah Brewer advises on how to keep healthy in the heat

Food poisoning can quickly change your summer holiday from marvellous to a misery. The medical term for food poisoning is gastroenteritis - known more commonly as Delhi belly, Montezuma's revenge or Torremolinos trots - and it's the commonest health problem to strike travellers abroad. Up to half of those visiting tropical regions are affected. Visitors to India are most at risk, closely followed by travellers to Egypt, Morocco, the Gambia, Tunisia and Kenya. Surprisingly, even 10 per cent of visitors to European resorts also succumb.

Food poisoning stems from eating or drinking contaminated food or liquids. Some cases are infective, and are caused by viruses or bacteria. Others are non-infective and linked with chemical pollutants or pre-formed poisons (toxins), such as those produced by staphylococcal bacteria, toxic plankton and some types of mushroom. Food poisoning after eating shellfish is especially common, as all four culprits - viruses, bacteria, toxins or chemicals - can be involved.

Symptoms of food poisoning include stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhoea. In severe cases the victim may develop a fever or even go into shock and collapse. Symptoms usually come on within:

  • 30 minutes, in the case of chemical poisoning, for example accidentally ingesting weed killer
  • One and 12 hours, if the illness is due to bacterial toxins, for example botulinum toxin
  • 12 and 48 hours, if it results from a bacterial or viral infection, for example salmonella, rotavirus


    The worst form of infective diarrhoea is dysentery, in which there is also fever, and blood and slime in the motions. There are two distinct types of dysentery: one due to infection with a group of bacteria known as shigella, and the other due to a single-celled organism known as entamoeba.



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