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I think I have food poisoning!
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If you think you have food poisoning you will probably be suffering from one or more of the following symptoms, diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever, nausea etc.
If so, you should firstly consult your GP or the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Walk-in Centre on 0114 271 2340 (open Monday to Sunday 8.00am-8.00pm).
If your symptoms are more severe you may need to contact the accident and emergency unit at either the Northern General Hospital on 0114 243 4343 or the Sheffield Children’s Hospital on 0114 271 7000.
More information on other local hospitals can be found on the NHS Choices website
The doctor will decide if your symptoms are caused by food poisoning. Other infections can cause similar symptoms such as viral gastro-enteritis, which is easily spread throughout the community and is not always associated with food. Advice leaflets are available for certain diseases that the Health Protection Service investigate. Further information regarding "food bugs" can be found on the Food Standards Agency website.
If the doctor believes your illness may be caused by eating unfit food then they should legally notify the Health Protection Service and also request you to submit a specimen of your faeces, so that they can identify any specific organism and treat you accordingly.
If you are aware that a few people are affected with similar symptoms, following a particular function or at your place of work, school etc, then you should make contact with us immediately on 0114 273 4644 to assist in our investigations. The sooner we get the information the better the chances are of establishing a cause.
A full list of legally notifiable diseases is available as a downloadable document at the bottom of this page.
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The Holiday Travel Watch website may be useful if you consider your illness to have been contracted whilst you were abroad on holiday.
Downloads
Downloadable word document containing a list of notifiable diseases (22 KB)
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