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Gastroenteritis is the medical term for what we’ve come to know as food poisoning or
foodborne illness. In essence, it’s the vomiting, it’s the diarrhea, it is sort
of a catchall phrase before the stool cultures come back, or if the stool culture comes back
negative and you’re still having those symptoms it’s so much easier for a doctor to say,
“Oh that person has Gastroenteritis, it’s inflammation of the stomach lining, inflammation
of your bowels.” It is what is most typically understood as the definite sign of a foodborne
illness. Gastroenteritis is usually the first step, and for most people it’s the only
step, in a foodborne illness. The vast majority of people don’t get sicker. They’re very
ill, they may be sick for five or six days, they could have E. coli or Salmonella, Campylobacter,
Shigella, all of those bacteria have similar symptoms that a doctor could lump into Gastroenteritis.
However as the new CDC statistics show, about 128,000 people will go on to need hospitalization,
and it may be for a Salmonella illness that has gone septic or E. coli illness that has
developed into Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome which may require much more intervention and dialysis
and then unfortunately, Gastroenteritis will lead to the deaths of some 3,000 American
every year.