What makes those special cases “special”, is there some germs that kill us while all the others are harmless ?
In: Biology
I’m sorry if this isn’t ELI5, but I’ll try my best:
When you say food poisoning, you aren’t actually being affected by the bacteria, in the food. The bacteria in the food already have some toxins in them, which get released upon consumption of said food, and hence the symptoms you get from food poisoning. That’s why it’s food poisoning, and not food infection.
Now, your body tries to rid itself of the poison, so it essentially flushes your bowels and stomach via diarrhea and vomiting.
*Staphylococcus aureus* and *Bacillus cereus* are two bacteria that cause very rapid food poisoning (we’re talking within an hour).
Now, there are also other types of bacteria (eg: *Shigella flexneri* and *Salmonella typhi*) which don’t have these premade toxins. Instead they attack your gut and multiply, and then the cause the damage. This takes longer than the pre formed toxins, about 2-3 days, usually 5 days.
Onto the other thing, your body is full of ‘germs’. And they are very very vital to your survival. We call them non-pathogenic’ bacteria (read as: not disease causing bacteria).
They keep other harmful bacteria from growing, and also perform some essential tasks( like making sure you get enough Vitamin K).
Here’s an interesting fact for you: The bacteria that causes Tetanus (clostridium tetani), is laughably weak. It can’t invade your akin, and it dies if exposed to oxygen.
**However** it makes a truly deadly toxin, that causes violent spasms of nearly all muscles of your body, eventually leading to death.
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