Meat is one of the main components of the diet of most people, which provides the body with protein and many trace elements, including iron, as well as a number of vitamins. From meat, you can cook a large number of varied and tasty dishes, including those for dietary nutrition. Nevertheless, low-quality meat is a serious he alth hazard, as it can cause poisoning or, as they say in medicine, food poisoning. At the first symptoms of meat poisoning, you need to seek help from specialists.
How meat poisoning happens
Provoke meat poisoning can:
- violation of sanitary and hygienic standards during cutting;
- slaughter of sick animals;
- violation of storage or transportation rules;
- eating uncooked meat dishes.
Meat is a breeding ground for many pathogens. Hitting onits surface, they multiply rapidly, penetrate into the deeper layers, producing dangerous toxins. If the meat is not properly processed at a high temperature, then with a high probability pathogenic bacteria will enter the body with food. Toxic elements of the vital activity of microbes cause inflammatory processes in the mucous membranes of the intestines and stomach, as a result of which the absorption of water and nutrients by the villi of the small intestine is disturbed. This underlies the development of gastroenteritis syndrome. In case of meat poisoning, the syndrome of intoxication is also expressed, the occurrence of which is associated with the ingress of bacterial toxin into the bloodstream.
Botulism
Poisoning from meat infected with Clostridium botulinum has a slightly different pathogenesis. Such microbes produce a strong poison that spreads throughout the body, penetrating the nerve synapses and blocking their activity. A symptom of meat poisoning in this case is paralysis of the muscles, including those that regulate respiratory movements. This causes the most serious consequences.
Meat poisoning symptoms
The incubation time for the development of food poisoning caused by eating meat infected with staphylococcus or salmonella does not exceed two days. The more pathogenic microorganisms have entered the digestive system, the shorter this period will be and the more pronounced the clinical picture will be.
The main symptoms of meat poisoning in humans are:
- heaviness inepigastric;
- nausea;
- cramping abdominal pain;
- vomit;
- repeated and profuse diarrhea;
- tachycardia;
- increased body temperature;
- lower blood pressure;
- headache and muscle pain;
- weakness.
Botulism can occur when eating smoked, cured or low-quality canned meat. The initial signs of this dangerous are the same symptoms, including diarrhea with food poisoning, only later on the patient quickly develops weakness, breathing becomes superficial. If treatment is not started promptly, death due to respiratory paralysis may occur.
Raw meat
Many exotic dishes are based on raw or undercooked meat. For example, well-known meat dishes with blood can cause severe poisoning, which ends with the hospitalization of people in the hospital. Nevertheless, there are people who really like these dishes, and they are the most often victims of botulism. The symptoms of raw meat poisoning are identical to those of all food poisoning. What happens when this happens?
There is severe nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and fever. In case of raw meat poisoning, such symptoms develop in a person many times faster than in the case of cooked meat, since in the absence of heat treatment, this product contains an extremely high content of pathogens.germs.
Boiled product
The answer to the question of whether it is possible to get poisoned by boiled meat is rather complicated, since it all depends on when to use the product - immediately after cooking or after a certain time. Medicine recommends using any food only fresh, but if the dish is stored in the refrigerator, then it must be consumed within two days. After the expiration of this time, the food becomes unfit for consumption, which also applies to boiled meat. Thus, they can be poisoned if the meat was cooked a few days ago, and pathogenic bacteria have already settled in it.
Rotten meat poisoning
It is quite difficult to get poisoned by such meat for the simple reason that such a product is easily recognizable by its strong unpleasant odor. Naturally, such meat will not cause appetite, but today there are more cases that there are still low-quality products on the shelves. Rotten meat is soaked by unscrupulous entrepreneurs in special solutions, including potassium permanganate, after which it acquires a fresh look and a pleasant color. In such a situation, it will not be difficult to get poisoned by rotten meat.
First aid - what to do?
In case of meat poisoning, first aid should be to cleanse the body of harmful microbes that provoked this disease, as well as from the toxins they produce. The first thing to do is to wash the stomach. At home, this is done in the simplest way. Sick drinksseveral glasses of water, then, due to irritation of the root of the tongue, causes vomiting. A similar procedure should be carried out several times until all the food in the stomach comes out. It is strictly forbidden to carry out self-lavage of the stomach to children and patients in an unconscious state.
Medicines
After the procedure, it is necessary to take absorbent medications that absorb toxins and remove them naturally. As a medicine for food poisoning, absorbents can be used - activated charcoal or Enterosgel, Filtrum STI preparations. Drinking plenty of water helps to significantly reduce the manifestations of intoxication and prevent the possible development of dehydration, as well as the resulting electrolyte imbalance. You can not immediately drink a lot of liquid, as this will provoke vomiting. It is better to give the patient a solution of "Rehydron" every 10 minutes in small sips.
When do you need medical help?
Even if the symptoms of meat poisoning, at first glance, seem insignificant, it is advisable to consult a doctor. And it is especially important to do this in the following situations:
- if the child was poisoned;
- signs of intoxication persist for more than two days;
- there is a sharp muscle weakness and respiratory disorders;
- decreased diuresis (urination);
- blood pressure dropped significantly.
Treatment methods
Therapeutic interventions and theirthe volume of meat poisoning directly depends on the type of pathogen that provoked it. So, for example, in case of salmonellosis, specialists prescribe antibacterial drugs and carry out infusion treatment.
Medications that are used for food poisoning, including meat, are divided into three groups, depending on the direction of their action and purpose of administration:
- antiemetics (used after cleansing the stomach of the contents): "Cerukal";
- drugs for removing toxins (absorbents): activated charcoal, Smekta, Enterosgel, Laktofiltrum, etc.;
- means for the normalization of water and electrolyte balance: "Regidron", other saline solutions;
- symptomatic medicines for food poisoning: digestive enzymes, painkillers (No-shpa, Citramon) and antipyretics (Nurofen, Paracetamol).
In case of botulism, it is necessary to start introducing anti-botulinum serum into the patient's blood as soon as possible, which neutralizes botulinum toxin. With the development of severe respiratory failure, it is necessary to transfer the patient to artificial respiration, therefore, these patients, as a rule, are hospitalized in the intensive care unit.
Poison prevention
In order not to get poisoned by meat and meat products, you must adhere to some rules for choosing meat on store shelves, its subsequent preparation and storage.
Significantly reduce the chance of meat poisoningThe following suggestions will help:
- The product must be purchased from large chain stores, where it passes the appropriate sanitary check. It can also be purchased on the market, provided that the seller has a sanitary book and a veterinary certificate for the products sold.
- Before you buy meat, you need to carefully examine it, paying special attention to its smell and color. If the product looks suspicious, has a smell uncharacteristic of fresh meat, you must refuse to buy it.
- Store the product at home in the freezer, and in finished form - in the refrigerator, in a sealed container for no longer than two days.
- Before eating, be sure to conduct heat treatment.
- Don't eat canned meat in swollen cans.
As for meat dishes that are sold ready-made, in the culinary departments of stores or eaten in cafes, in this case you also need to carefully get acquainted with their smell and taste. However, a spoiled product cannot always be recognized by such signs; most often, meat sandwiches or cutlets look very appetizing. Doctors recommend cooking meat yourself for the prevention of meat poisoning and not purchasing ready-made meals. If lunch or dinner takes place in a cafe, you need to visit only proven places, as well as those that have a good reputation. Various bistros and fast food should be avoided.
Complications
If the symptoms of meat poisoning do notwere noticed in time, then with the development of toxic infection it can proceed in a severe form, which in most cases is observed in children and weakened people, some complications may occur. The most common among them are:
- Infectious-toxic shock is a dangerous complication that poses a threat to life for the victim. This condition develops when a large number of various bacterial toxins are absorbed into the bloodstream, which contribute to a significant decrease in blood pressure, sometimes even to collapse. Also, when this pathology occurs, a significant violation of blood clotting develops in the form of a syndrome of intravascular disseminated coagulation with the formation of small blood clots in all vessels.
- Sepsis (more commonly known as blood poisoning). This complication develops most often in weakened people and is characterized by the penetration of pathogenic bacteria from the digestive system into the blood, their subsequent spread throughout the body and settling in the internal organs. At the same time, in most cases, a liver abscess develops, when a cavity filled with purulent contents forms in this organ.
- Hypovolemia, which is a pronounced decrease in the amount of mineral s alts and fluid in the body. At the same time, convulsions develop, and disorders in the work of the organs of the cardiovascular and nervous systems, kidney failure.
- Dysbacteriosis, which, as a rule, acts as a late complication of meat poisoning and other food poisoning,and proceeds with a violation of the balance of normal microflora in the intestine and the predominance of representatives.
