Campylobacter is an infectious illness which can be carried by food or water. Symptoms can include severe abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fever, nausea and occasionally vomiting. These symptoms can last for up to 2 weeks.
Causes
Campylobacter is caused by:
- Drinking raw unpasteurised milk
- Eating undercooked poultry and poultry based foods
- Contact with streams or ponds
- Drinking unchlorinated water
- Infection from pets, especially puppies and kittens and from farm animals and birds (watch out for birds pecking the tops on milk bottles left on the door step)
How is it spread?
Campylobacter is spread by the hands, kitchen surfaces and cooking utensils such as chopping boards and knives.
Precautions
- Ensure you wash your hands before preparing or serving food or drink, after handling pets or their food bowls and after handling raw meat and poultry
- Avoid swallowing water when participating in water sports
- Only drink mains or treated water. Make sure that the water tank in your loft is covered to stop birds getting in
- Do not drink untreated (green top) milk. Keep tops like yoghurt pots on delivered milk to prevent birds pecking at the milk
- Cover open wounds or sores with a waterproof plaster
- Keep all perishable foods in a fridge separating raw meat from other foods
- Take food out of the fridge just before use
- Keep the fridge temperature below 5°C
- Ensure frozen foods are properly thawed before cooking
- Ensure foods are cooked thoroughly
- Keep kitchen surfaces and utensils clean. Wash chopping boards and knives with a detergent and sanitiser
- When preparing food do not let pets or other animals into the kitchen. Do not wash food bowls with the family dishes
- Do not buy or eat food past its 'use by' or 'best before' date
- Do not reheat food more than once
- Always follow the instructions when cooking/reheating microwave and ready meals
Treatment
No treatment is usually given for campylobacter infections. In some cases antibiotics may be prescribed.