Foodborne diseases are caused by substances that are produced by bacteria in spoilt foods. Nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea occur within a few hours after eating. Diarrhoea and vomiting after eating are therefore commonly referred to as food poisoning. Foodborne diseases are the body's reaction to degradation products or poisons from bacteria.
Technically, foodborne diseases are not an infection but the intestine's reaction to toxins produces by bacteria in spoilt food. Dairy and egg products, meat and potato salad are examples for food that spoils fast. Enterotoxinogenic bacteria are most commonly staphylococcus aureus, and sometimes bacillus cereus or clostridium perfringens. The toxin of staphylococcus aureus, which frequently causes foodborne diseases, is heat resistant. That means that even by heating up spoilt food to 100°C for more than 30 minutes do not destroy those toxins, so that they can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea after eating.
Characteristic for foodborne diseases are the typical symptoms within 1 to 16 hours after eating the spoilt food. Usually all persons who consumed the food will suffer from nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, often accompanied by cramp-like stomach pains. The symptoms usually occur within few hours after consuming the affected food. With the exception of the very rare botulism, patients fully recover without any long-term consequences.
The typical symptoms described by all persons who consumed the affected food within 1 to 16 hours point to foodborne disease. Nonetheless, an infection, e.g. salmonella or norovirus should be taken into consideration as well. In cases of doubt, the enterotoxins can often be established in the spoilt food. The symptoms typically last for 1 to 2 days. Therapy is purely for the symptoms. Most important is the replacement of liquids and salts, and in some cases antispasmodic medication. Especially older patients or children may require in-patient treatment with infusions, to regulate the liquid- and salt balance. Generally it is important to make sure that foods bought or consumed are fresh and not spoilt. It is also important to know that even heating up foods can't remove certain bacterial toxins.
Several years of work in academia, medical practice and finally commercialization make it possible to provide an end-to-end process to help users to “find the appropriate medical help based on their present symptoms”. Below you will find a short explanation, showing you which part of the platform will help you best in finding the appropriate medical support.
Proceed as follows to enter your current symptoms.
Click on the appropriate body part on the picture. Select one/multiple symptoms corresponding to your complaint.
You can also add symptoms by typing your medical complaint in the search box and selecting the best matching suggestion.
Note: Your information will be kept anonymously.
Once you have selected all applicable symptoms, click the “analyze disease pattern”-button.
Accordingly, you will get a list of possible diseases and matching doctor categories who can further help you.
You can inform yourself about the possible diseases by reading the related information. But you can also return to the previous step and add more symptoms or delete already added ones to further narrow down your disease pattern.
Click on the desired doctor category to find a doctor who can help you.
If you are logged in with your profile, you will be displayed the appropriate doctors in your area. Otherwise you can enter an address in the “address” field and you will be displayed a doctor’s list around that specified address.
You will receive further information about the displayed doctors when you press on “details”.
Online bookable doctors in your area will be indicated with the notation “Book appointment” or “Book externally”, additionally they will be displayed on top of the list for your convenience.
Click on “Book appointment” to start the online appointment booking process with the desired doctor.
Please select an available appointment. “Green“ appointments are booked directly. “Red“ appointments need to be confirmed by the doctor.
Enter your general personal and health information.
Enter your present medical symptoms.
Enter your mobile phone number to identify yourself and you can finalize the appointment booking.
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