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Food Borne Illness
Reporting Incident for Investigation
If you are experiencing possible food borne illness symptoms you should first contact a physician and care for your immediate condition. Then contact the Monroe County Health Department Environmental Health Division, to report the alleged incident for investigation at 734-240-7900.
Please be prepared to provide the name of the establishment, the time you consumed the food, and a description of what you ate. The online reporting system is designed to walk you through all of the questions that the Monroe County Health Department will require, and maybe more beneficial than calling in, as you can go back and change or update your answers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The following information will be needed when you call or report online:
- Your name, address, and phone number
- Any medications you are currently taking
- Allergies
- Where you work or go to school
- Physician or Hospital that you visited or that referred you to notify the health department
- Symptoms of illness and when they onset and/or ended
- Laboratory testing information and results from blood, stool, urine or other samples
- Travel in the previous month
- Drinking water sources at home and work
- List of names that you have contact with that have or had similar symptoms, with phone numbers and addresses
- Food purchase locations in the last 2 weeks before illness
- Name(s) of restaurant(s)
- Location/address of restaurant (it must be in Monroe County)
- Date of suspect meal
- Specific information about the suspected foods that you suspect made you sick
- 3-day food eating history
Substantiated cases of food-borne illness affect many Monroe County residents every year and many others remain undetected by the Health Care Community or the Local Health Department.
Further Information
The Centers for Disease Control website is an authoritative site for Food Borne Illness Studies.
For user-friendly information on the food borne illness, you may wish to consult CDC's interactive food safety website.
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Environmental Health
Physical Address
2353 S Custer Road
Monroe, MI 48161
Phone: 734-240-7900Fax: 734-240-7948
Hours
Monday through Friday
8 am to 1 pm
1 to 5 pmPlease arrive 15 minutes prior to closing to process your request.
- What are symptoms of food-borne illness?
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There can be several symptoms of food-borne illness that may also be related to other illnesses, which is why it is important for you to see a health care professional as soon as possible to determine what is causing your symptoms and to treat the symptoms in a manner consistent with the diagnosis. Some symptoms that people may experience, that may be caused by food-borne illness are:
- Abdominal cramps
- Diarrhea
- Fever
- Jaundice
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- What cause typical food borne illness diseases?
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Typically, food-borne illnesses are caused by one of three major factors which introduce or allow potentially hazardous bacteria, viruses, toxins or other substances to be in the food we eat. The three main factors are:
- Poor hand washing or poor personal hygiene of the person(s) preparing the food
- Cross-contamination of ready-to eat food by raw food
- Time and temperature abuse of foods (not cold enough, hot enough or in between the two for too long)
The majority of food-borne illnesses reported and verified each year are caused by the following bacteria or viruses:
- Who do I notify if I think I have food poisoning?
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You may contact the Environmental Health Division office and file a complaint of the alleged food-borne illness. Upon consultation with your physician they may contact our office requesting an investigation.
- What is a food-borne illness outbreak?
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An outbreak is an incident where two or more persons, not of the same household, have ingested a common food and have a similar illness, similar symptoms, and there is a time, place or person association between these persons. A single person complaint implicating a food with a food-borne illness is only considered an outbreak for a few specific diseases.
- Will my name be given to the restaurant if I report a food borne illness?
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All efforts are made to keep names of complainants confidential but all reports submitted to the Environmental Health Division are subject to Freedom of Information requests. The department does need a name and phone number of those exhibiting symptoms in order to conduct a thorough investigation.
- How is a food borne illness proven?
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To prove what organism caused the illness, there must be clinical specimens from the person who is ill and food specimens of what was eaten. If samples are available, laboratory tests can be conducted on both the food and clinical samples to determine what caused the illness.