Communicable Disease Prevention and Control

Food / Water Borne and Gastrointestinal Diseases

What is Food and Waterborne Disease?

Food and waterborne disease is caused by eating contaminated food or drinking impure water. There are more than 250 kinds of food and waterborne diseases. Most of these diseases are infections and are caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Other food and waterborne diseases are caused by toxic chemicals and other harmful substances.

Food and waterborne diseases have a number of different symptoms. However, because the microbe or toxin usually enters the body through the gastrointestinal tract, the first symptoms of disease are commonly nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea.        

To find out more about how to protect yourself and your family from food-borne diseases, please visit this site for tips on food safety from the Department of Agriculture:

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsaf/foodsafety/

Common Food- and Water-borne Infections

The most commonly known infections are caused by three bacteria, campylobacter, salmonella, Listeriosis, and E. coli, and by the virus that causes Hepatitis A.