الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Foodborne illness is a frequent complaint of person seeking medical attention due to gastrointestinal distress and systemic symptoms that may result. It can affect one person or it can occur as an outbreak in a group of people who all ate the same contaminated food. This study was performed with the aim of: to diagnose the possible causes of acute food poisoning in patients coming to the ?Poison Unit? in Mansoura Emergency Hospital. This study was planed as follow: This study was carried out during the period from September 2001 to September 2003. The subjects were patients referred to the ?Poison Unit? in Mansoura Emergency Hospital suffering from manifestations of food poisoning. The study was conducted on 506 cases (both sexes) Patient<U+2019>s ages ranged between 1 to 70 years. Cases were divided into two groups: I Group I: Included 200 cases which were admitted to the Toxicology Unit in Mansoura Emergency Hospital in small outbreaks of food poisoning during the period of the study. II Group II: Included 306 cases which referred as school children (aged from 6 to 14 years) suffering from an outbreak of food poisoning at the school. They were admitted to the Toxicology Unit in Mansoura Emergency Hospital in a large outbreak of food poisoning in one day in the 9th of March 2002. All patients were subjected to history taking (age, sex, occupation, residence, economic status, symptoms of food poisoning ?nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, headache or neurological complaints?, Food history ?place of eating and incriminated food? and incubation period), clinical examination (vital signs ?pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature?, neurological, ocular , respiratory, cardiovascular, abdominal, genitourinary and skin examinations) and laboratory investigations as serum cholinesterase level, Widal test, Bacterial cultures (for blood, vomitus or gastric contents aspirate and stool) and aflatoxin B1 detection in vomitus or gastric contents aspirate. Measurement of lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic levels in the vomitus or gastric contents aspirate were done for food poisoning cases in (groupI) only. Results revealed: Food poisoning was more prevalent in the middle age, rural areas and warmer months. Aflatoxin B1 was implicated in most of food poisoning cases and this can result in very serious and dangerous health problems, because aflatoxins are well recognized as a cause of liver cancer and this coincide with increase incidence of liver cancer in Egypt nowadays. The biscuits contaminated with aflatoxin B1 were the cause of food poisoning in (groupII). The most common bacteria isolated from the vomitus and stool samples in the studied food poisoning cases (groupI) were Coagulase positive Staph aureus followed by nontyphoidal Salmonella. Botulism should be expected to occur all the year round so long as fermented salted fish manufacture continues. The increasing and indiscriminate use of organophosphates and carbamates as agricultural and household insecticides without any accompanying public education about their storage and safe use increases the potential for more outbreaks of food poisoning. The contamination of foods with arsenic, mercury, lead and cadmium represent a potential threat to human health and the danger may result from cumulative chronic toxicity. This study has concluded that: We can not ignore the synergistic effects of bacterial, viral and chemical (pesticides and heavy metals residues and mycotoxins) contamination of the foods at the same time which leading to increasing symptoms even with low concentration of toxins.