Concept Of Food Poisoning : A Modern Review

Abstract

Ayurveda is a ‘Science of Life’ which provides curative as well as preventive principles for healthy and long life. The ancient Ayurvedic classic texts namely the Samhitas of charak, Sushruta and Vagbhata and the subsequent treatises have invariably given detailed description of food poisoning, its causes, types, pathology and the line of management and treatment both preventive and curative. Food borne illness are the commonest health problems encountered world-wide, and are particularly rampant in Third World countries such as India, mainly due to a relative lack of sanitation and public hygiene. The term food poisoning in its wider sense includes all illness which results from ingestion of food containing non-bacterial or bacterial products. In other words, it is an acute gastroenteritis caused by ingestion of food or drink contaminated with either living bacteria or their toxins or chemical substances and poisons derived from plants and animals. Acute gastroenteritis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The majority of episodes may be directly linked to infection or infectious agents spread by the faecal-oral route and transmitted either on for mites, on contaminated hands, or in food or water. The chief symptoms are headache, giddiness, intense thirst, acute vomiting, diarrhoea, colicky pain, slow pulse, rigors and cramps. Measures such as the provision of clean potable water, appropriate disposal of human and animal sewage with separation from water supplies, and simple principles of food hygiene are all very effective means of halting the spread of these infections. Fluid replacement, ideally oral, is vital in the management of these cases.