Foodborne illness (suspected)
Fact sheet2 - Health conditions directory.
Food-borne illness can be caused by a variety of different bacteria, by the toxins they produce, fungus or virus. These have different incubation periods (the time between eating the food and the appearance of the symptoms) and cause different symptoms. Food-borne illness is not always caused by the last meal eaten by a person and food contaminated with food poisoning bacteria will not necessarily look, taste or smell bad.
Public health management guidelines
Read Queensland Health Suspected Foodborne Illness Outbreak Management Guideline3 (PDF, 666KB)
Notification
Attending medical practitioners/medical superintendents (or delegates)
To notify two or more associated cases of gastroenteritis, or where gastroenteritis is diagnosed in a food handler.
Notification resources
- List of all Pathological, clinical and provisional diagnosis notifiable conditions4
- List of Public Health Unit5 contacts
- Notifiable conditions report form for Queensland doctors/clinicians (PHA S70) or person in charge of a Hospital (PHA S71)6 (PDF, 77kB) - if faxing notification, follow up by phone.
Enhanced surveillance for public health units
- Reporting forms for public health units7 – used by public health units to report outbreaks to OzFoodNet.
- Gastrointestinal/Foodborne outbreak summary form8 (XLS, 89kB) – used by public health units to report summary information about gastrointestinal and foodborne outbreak investigations to OzFoodNet.
Resources for health professionals
- Food safety9 – information on food safety; including resources, fact sheets and general information.
- Foodborne disease in Queensland10 – information and links to resources for health professionals.
- Diarrhoea in young children11 – Queensland Health fact sheet.
- Prevention and management of a gastroenteritis outbreak in a camp facility12 (PDF, 461kB) – a manual for camp facilities, schools and community groups.