clinical features
Last reviewed 04/2023
Short incubation period of approximately 2 days.
Presentation is of an acute onset illness, with fever, malaise, abdominal pain and watery diarrhoea.
As the disease progresses the symptoms become more severe and the patient develops bloody diarrhoea with mucus, tenesmus, faecal urgency. Another prominent feature is a severe cramping abdominal pain.
If the type of organism is one that produces a neurotoxin then the patient may complain of headache, vomiting and convulsions (in children).