Salmonellosis symptoms can take from 6 to 72 hours to start after someone ingests the bacteria. In most people, the illness lasts for 4 to 7 days after symptoms begin. Hand washing is a powerful way to guard against Salmonella infections. So teach kids to wash their hands well and often, particularly after trips to the bathroom and before handling food. Reviewed by: Rebecca L.
Gill, MD. Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. What Is Salmonella? What Is Salmonella Infection? A Salmonella infection typically causes: nausea and vomiting abdominal cramps diarrhea sometimes bloody fever headache Because many different kinds of illnesses can cause these symptoms, most doctors will take a stool sample to make an accurate diagnosis. Salmonella infections usually clear up without medical treatment. Are Salmonella Infections Contagious? Who Is at Risk for Salmonella Infections?
People at risk for more serious complications from a Salmonella infection include those who: are very young, especially babies have problems with their immune systems such as people with HIV take cancer-fighting drugs or drugs that affect their immune system have sickle cell disease have an absent or nonfunctioning spleen take chronic stomach acid suppression medicine In these higher-risk groups, most doctors will treat an infection with antibiotics to prevent it from spreading to other parts of the body.
How Are Salmonella Infections Treated? Can Salmonella Infections Be Prevented? Here are some other ways to protect your family from Salmonella infections: Cook food thoroughly. Salmonella bacteria are most commonly found in animal products and can be killed by the heat of cooking. Don't serve raw or undercooked eggs, poultry, or meat. Microwaving is not a reliable way to kill the bacteria.
Humans become infected most frequently through contaminated water or food. Typically, people with salmonella infection have no symptoms. Others develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps within eight to 72 hours. Most healthy people recover within a few days without specific treatment. In some cases, the diarrhea associated with salmonella infection can be so dehydrating as to require prompt medical attention.
Life-threatening complications also may develop if the infection spreads beyond your intestines. Your risk of acquiring salmonella infection is higher if you travel to countries with poor sanitation. Salmonella infection is usually caused by eating raw or undercooked meat, poultry, eggs or egg products. The incubation period ranges from several hours to two days. Most salmonella infections can be classified as stomach flu gastroenteritis.
Possible signs and symptoms include:. Signs and symptoms of salmonella infection generally last two to seven days. Diarrhea may last up to 10 days, although it may take several months before bowels return to normal. A few varieties of salmonella bacteria result in typhoid fever, a sometimes deadly disease that is more common in developing countries. Salmonella bacteria live in the intestines of people, animals and birds.
Most people are infected with salmonella by eating foods that have been contaminated by feces. Commonly infected foods include:. The Food and Drug Administration also indicates that some salmonella outbreaks have been traced to contaminants in spices.
The agency is seeking ways to increase the safety of spices. Many foods become contaminated when prepared by people who don't wash their hands thoroughly after using the toilet or changing a diaper. Infection also can occur if you touch something that is contaminated, including pets, especially birds and reptiles, and then put your fingers in your mouth.
Though pathogenic serotypes can be very genetically similar , they can have different abilities to cause severe disease.
Some serotypes cause a few days of mostly self-limiting illness, whereas others cause life-threatening complications. It is not well understood how specific serotypes alter host immune response and modulate bacterial virulence. Serotypes can be further divided into typhoid and non-typhoid serotypes, based on their ability to cause typhoid or paratyphoid fever , a type of severe S.
Typhoid and paratyphoid strains are typed using O and H antigens, but also by their Vi Virulence antigens. The Vi antigen is a capsular antigen that contributes significantly to virulence, which may partially explain the disparity in disease severity between typhoid and non-typhoid strains. Typhoid Salmonella infections are more likely to be life-threatening , causing high fevers, headaches, constipation or diarrhea, and rose spots —patches of red discoloration on the skin where bacterial emboli are present.
Salmonella undermines non-phagocytic immune cells too, by inducing reactive oxygen species ROS production from human neutrophils.
This defense mechanism is intended to protect the host by damaging bacterial nucleic acids and proteins. However, Salmonella benefits from ROS production , because it has an arsenal of peroxidases and catalases to help it survive ROS exposure. Other resident gut microbes are less equipped to survive this harsh environment, thus creating a selective advantage for Salmonella. Once inside the host cell, Salmonella divides rapidly, and can either enclose itself within membrane-bound vacuoles, or as was recently discovered, replicate within the cytosol of cells.
Cytosolic Salmonella also divide very quickly and have the ability to hyper-replicate in intestinal epithelial cells, gallbladder epithelial cells, and polarized epithelial cells that mimic the internal environment of the intestine.
This adaptability to new environments may suggest that the cytosolic subpopulations of Salmonella have the ability to leave and survive outside of the intestine, potentially allowing them to spread to other body sites, leading to much more serious and invasive illness.
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