Explaining Gastroenteritis with Food Safety Attorney Bill Marler

Food poisoning attorney Bill Marler of Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm explains gastroenteritis and its role in foodborne illness litigation.


Gastroenteritis is the medical term for what we've come to know as food poisoning or foodborne illness.

In essence, it's the vomiting, it's the diarrhea, it is sort of a catchall phrase before the stool cultures come back, or if the stool culture comes back negative and you're still having those symptoms it's so much easier for a doctor to say, "Oh that person has Gastroenteritis, it's inflammation of the stomach lining, inflammation of your bowels." It is what is most typically understood as the definite sign of a foodborne illness.

Gastroenteritis is usually the first step, and for most people it's the only step, in a foodborne illness. The vast majority of people don't get sicker. They're very ill, they may be sick for five or six days, they could have E. coli or Salmonella, Campylobacter, Shigella, all of those bacteria have similar symptoms that a doctor could lump into Gastroenteritis.

However as the new CDC statistics show, about 128,000 people will go on to need hospitalization, and it may be for a Salmonella illness that has gone septic or E. coli illness that has developed into Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome which may require much more intervention and dialysis and then unfortunately, Gastroenteritis will lead to the deaths of some 3,000 American every year.

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Science & Technology

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• food poisoning lawyer
• food poisoning attorney
• food safety
• foodborne illness
• gastroenteritis
• stomach ache