Food Poisoning and Safe Food Handling
Medications
Medicines aren't used routinely in food poisoning. Medicines that stop diarrhea (antidiarrheals) can help with your symptoms. These medicines (such as Imodium) shouldn't be used if you have a fever or bloody diarrhea, because they can actually make you sicker. Don't give antidiarrheals to children.
Types of food poisoning that may be treated with medicines include:
- Reference Botulism, which usually requires the botulism antitoxin and close medical care.
- Reference Listeriosis, which in pregnant women is treated with antibiotics to prevent infection of the Reference fetus Opens New Window or newborn. Babies with listeriosis may also receive antibiotics.
- Reference Toxoplasmosis food poisoning, which in pregnant women is treated with antibiotics. To learn more, see the topic Reference Toxoplasmosis During Pregnancy.
- Reference Shigellosis, which may be treated with antibiotics. But some types of Shigella bacteria aren't killed by antibiotics. This is called Reference resistance Opens New Window. Because using antibiotics can make these bacteria even more resistant, mild cases of shigellosis aren't usually treated with antibiotics.
For information on medicines and treating Reference E. coli Opens New Window, see the topic Reference E. Coli Infection.
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