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About 75 million people suffer from foodborne illnesses each year. For most healthy adults and older children, ingesting an infectious dose of foodborne germs leads to little more than a few days of diarrhea or vomiting. Other people become extremely ill with such ailments as bloody diarrhea, dehydration, kidney failure, arthritis, paralysis or meningitis. Each year about 5,000 Americans die of complications of a foodborne disease.
Several factors put certain people at high risk for serious foodborne illnesses, and everyone moves in and out of high-risk groups throughout their lives. Food-safety experts urge everyone - particularly high-risk people and their loved ones - to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold, to wash their hands before eating, to avoid cross-contaminating their food and to use caution when dining out.
Are you or someone in your family at high risk for a foodborne illness right now? Take the following quiz to find out.
- Are you older than 75?
- Are you pregnant?
- Do you take antacids regularly?
- Are you taking an antibiotic now or have you finished a course of antibiotic treatment less than two weeks ago?
- Do you have HIV, AIDS or another immune system disorder?
- Are you taking medication that suppresses your immune system?
- Have you undergone gastric surgery?
- Have you had an organ transplant?
- Do you have lymphoma, leukemia or Hodgkin's disease?
- Are you undergoing cancer chemotherapy treatment?
- Do you have chronic lung or heart disease?
- Are you malnourished?
- Do you drink two or more alcoholic beverages a day?
- Do you have liver disease?
- Are you a long-time steroid user for such conditions as asthma or arthritis?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you may be at risk for a foodborne disease.
This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
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