Salmonella Symptoms
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Someone came to the blog this morning searching “Salmonella Saintpaul flatulence” inspiring this post. As of last night 138 people in 11 states were sick from Salmonella in tomatoes.
According to http://www.about-salmonella.com/salmonella_symptoms_risks, Salmonella can cause gastroenteritis, typhoid fever, and bacteremia. The following are symptoms of Salmonella gastroenteritis:
- diarrhea
- abdominal cramps
- fever, generally 100°F to 102°F (38°C to 39°C)
- nausea, and/or
- vomiting
In mild cases diarrhea may be non-bloody, occur several times per day, and not be very voluminous; in severe cases it may be frequent, bloody and/or mucoid, and of high volume. Vomiting is less common than diarrhea.
Other frequently reported symptoms are
- headaches
- muscle pain, and
- joint pain
Whereas the diarrhea typically lasts 24 to 72 hours, patients often report fatigue and other nonspecific symptoms lasting 7 days or longer.
The FDA has a thorough analysis of Salmonella in their Bad Bug Book.
If you are concerned that you have food poisoning, you should contact your local health unit or Seattle law firm Marler-Clark that specializes in foodborne illness litigation.
Dagwood dog or party pie -- Australian PM barfs
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said party pie or something else savoury -- not a dagwood dog -- may have been responsible for a vomiting bug that felled him last month.
His office yesterday blamed a "dodgy dagwood dog" for the illness, but Mr Rudd suggested today it might have been a pie, stating,
"I think it was a party pie, something like that, a savoury something. All I know is whether it was that, or whether it was a stomach bug, the consequences were graphic."
Dagwood dogs are sausages, deep-fried in batter and served on a stick.
Farmer's vomit sickens 54 bystanders at hospital
Police and hospital officials said 54 people were sickened at a Kumamoto Red Cross Hospital in Kumamoto, Japan, after inhaling toxic gas from the vomit of a 34-year-old farmer who had apparently swallowed an agricultural chemical to kill himself.
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He vomited while undergoing treatment, generating toxic chlorine gas.
A total of 54 people near him, including doctors and patients, fell ill. Of them, 10 were admitted to hospitals including the Red Cross Hospital, while the 44 others who were not in serious condition are steadily recovering.
If you're going to off yourself, try not to involve involve others.
Don't barf in public; it's against the law
City council in Windsor, Ontario (Canada) wants to make it illegal to vomit in public in an attempt to control late-night rowdiness.
Council was also set to discuss a mandatory 2 a.m. closing-time for hotdog vendors.
Apparently that's to keep munchie-driven zombies from roaming the streets.
Patrick Lacey, 25, said,
"What are they really going to do about vomiting in public? … you can't stop someone from throwing up. Throwing up in public is embarrassing enough as it is; you don't need to get arrested."
I can't wait for the next norovirus outbreak to hit Windsor.
Barf in UK taxi ... you pay
Passengers who throw up in the back of a cab could get charged more than double – as well as face a hike in taxi fares.
The so-called soiling fee will be increased from £40 to £100 in South Ribble if the council gives the go-ahead.
Cabbies in the South Ribble Council area have asked the authority to consider putting up the fares for the first time since September 2006.
Drivers say that the rising cost of fuel and insurance premiums – as well as an increase in the number of inebriated passengers – means it is costing more to stay on the road.
Now anyone who forces a taxi off the road by soiling it through their drunkenness could be hit with the £100 charge.
Vomiting customers are currently charged £30.
Fake vomit is serious business
The Seattle Times reports that a two-story brick warehouse on Chicago's West Side is the world capital of fake vomit, where it's still made the old-fashioned American way, ladle by ladle, formed and coagulated for the next generation of pranksters and troublemakers.
Helping put the ick in America since 1941, Fun Inc. is a repository of practical jokes, magic tricks and gag items — from chattering teeth to hot pepper gum, oversize sunglasses to oversize toothbrushes to oversize anything.
The story explains that in the 1960s, upward of 60,000 fake vomits were produced annually. These days, Fun Inc. brews up the recipe only a few times a year, making around 7,000 latex barfs annually, as tourist gift shops and joke stores look overseas for cheaper versions (though for $15 a dozen wholesale, Fun Inc.'s prank puke is still a heck of a deal).
The story says that fake vomit's pop-cultural significance earned it a reference on "The Simpsons" during Season 4 in the "Last Exit to Springfield" episode. Nuclear plant owner Mr. Burns shuts off power to the city. When he turns it back on, production at Fake Vomit Inc. resumes. Mechanized fake vomit machine squirts; workers rejoice.
Although fake vomit is immersed deep enough in the pop-culture zeitgeist to warrant its own Wikipedia entry, its ambiguous history exists only in tales passed around factory floors.
Ben's barf for barfblog
Well I don't actually have a picture of it, but for the past 21 hours or so I've been stricken with something nasty. Maybe it is norovirus, sure seems like it might be.
Here's what's been happening to me:
- Trips to the bathroom for vomiting = 2
- Trips to the bathroom for diarrhea = 6
- Stomach cramps = lots
Every time I drink something (which I have limited to water) I get some wicked cramps.
Haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday.
I really was hoping to get a picture to make the blog authentic, but a camera was the last thing I was thinking of. I promised Doug I'd snap a pic of my next trip to the bathroom.
Ironically this week's infosheet is all about norovirus, you can find it here.
Is vomiting a symptom of bird flu?
Apparently that's what a flight crew on a Korean Air flight to Auckland thought when they alerted police on the ground that a passenger was vomiting, or "displaying bird flu symptoms". According to an AP report in the New York Times today:.jpg)
Crew on the flight, from South Korea via Australia, alerted airport authorities when the woman began vomiting and showing other possible bird flu symptoms, sparking a lockdown on the tarmac as the plane landed, said Norman Upjohn, an ambulance duty manager.
The 223 people aboard the Boeing 747 were held for about an hour under ''full quarantine procedure'' while a paramedic in protective clothing examined the woman, Upjohn said.
South Korea declared itself bird flu free in June, after reporting no new cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu -- in birds or humans -- for three months.
I sure hope that no one with a bit of vomit or diarrhea flies to NZ from the UK this week.
You vomit on the bus, you pay; norovirus is the best excuse
The Associated Press is reporting that George Washington University students who get drunk and barf on the university's shuttle bus could be charged hundreds of dollars to clean up the bus, plus the cost of cab vouchers for other students trying to get home.
The policy will be enforced by "mystery riders," who could be on board at any time.
The Vern Express runs round the clock between the university's Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon campuses.
University officials say when someone gets sick, the driver has to stop the bus, unload the passengers and arrange rides home.
The policy follows an increase in the number of incidents and complaints from students about delays. School officials say it applies only to students who are drunk -- not those who are actually sick.
The were several of those in Manhattan last night, as a late game meant the "official" tailgating started at 3 pm, and didn't wrap up until 12:30 a.m., with a 47-20 Kansas State victory over Colorado, and allowing K-State to sneak back into the college football rankings at #25 in the AP poll (shout-out to my Canadian Food Inspection Agency fans).
One of our golf friends tried the norovirus excuse on the first fairway after a night of excess several years ago in Newport News, Virginia.
It didn't work.
Kansas football and food safety II
As Kansas State (24) prepares to host University of Kansas Saturday morning in college football action, here's hoping the locals are better hosts than the women at KU's Pi Beta Phi sorority.
Apparently, the fathers of the gals will soon be receiving “I survived Pi Phi Dad’s Day 2007” T-shirts.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that some of the dads and many of the women of Pi Beta Phi came down with an unknown illness during the Sept, 22 event at KU.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is investigating and, as yet, hasn’t found a source of the illness. The probe has included Vermont Street Barbecue, Abe & Jake’s Landing and the sorority’s kitchen, but it could expand further.
KDHE spokesman Joe Blubaugh said the number of people who were potentially exposed — up to 240 — complicates the investigation.
Meg Stewart, Pi Beta Phi president, said the sorority was grateful the illness wasn’t worse. She said a few members were sent to a hospital.
