Food Poisoning and
Infectious Diseases Investigation
The Council's Environmental Health Team investigates cases
of confirmed food poisoning and other notifiable infectious
diseases. The Health Protection Agency usually reports these to us
after a positive result from their laboratory. This normally
happens when people contact their GP and submit a stool sample for
examination.
The Council's Environmental Health Officers may decide to
investigate to try to prevent the spread of infection within the
home and the community and to try to establish where the infection
came from.
Whether or not we investigate will depend on the likely cause of
the illness, whether a positive result confirming an infectious
disease has been received from the laboratory, the number of people
affected, the severity of the illness, and any delay between the
start of the illness and receipt of the report.
Where a decision is made to investigate, an Officer will contact
the person(s) with the symptoms, either by post, telephone or by
visiting them and will ask them questions regarding:
- what and where they've eaten for several days before
they were ill;
- details of their symptoms;
- details of their job;
- if they've been on holiday abroad;
- whether or not their GP has taken a stool sample and;
- if anybody else they ate with also had any symptoms.
- they may ask that person to provide a stool sample.
Further information on infectious diseases from www.hpa.org.uk/infections (external
link)