food poisoning from cheese eaten in itialy?

Question

had cheese in italy, a few hours later had diarrhea.
condition has lasted for 5 years, also my feet and ankles are now swollen. i know its food poisoning, however none of the doctors that i ha ve gone to seem to agree. if you have had these same symptoms, please send me an e-mail. thanks in advance

Answer 1

In many parts of the world, cheese is made from raw milk. Raw milks can carry a slew of bacteria that can make people EXTREMELY ill. These include things like Campylobacter, Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria and Brucella.

While diarrhea caused by bacterial infection usually takes one to three days to set in (the diarrhea may have been coincidental or caused by another source), the FIVE YEARS of symptoms (do you have periodic fevers, too?) with joint swelling sounds like it could be Brucella infection.

See a doctor. Brucella is curable, but it is SERIOUS. Tell the doctor you ate cheese in Italy five years ago and symptoms persisted.

Answer 2

While an infectious disease like listeriosis, brucellosis and glanders may possible, it isn't likely you got it from the cheese; and it is not food poisoning. Food poisoning is caused by toxins that are released into food by bacteria growing in it. Food poisoning may start a few hours after eating but usually it is over within a day or two.

If you got an enteric infection, the dishes, knife or cheese plane or your hands could be how you got it, not from the cheese. The healthy bacteria in cheese usually prevents growth of harmful bacteria.

How soon you say you started having symptoms does not fit a condition caused by the bacteria I and other answerers listed. It is possible that you already were developing the condition and it was a coincidence that eating cheese in Italy was associated with it.

Or, you might have a rare bacterial condition called Whipples disease. The cell walls of degraded bacteria accumulate in the intestinal wall and cause problems with the lymphatic flow. This condition and another odd condition called Protein Losing Enteropathy could explain the connection between diarrhea and swollen ankles since protein in your blood is needed to prevent blood vessels leaking salt and water into your tissues.

Most Europeans are vaccinated against TB using a live attenuated bacteria called Bovine Calmette Guerin or BCG. The cows are also vaccinated with this and the vaccine strain could be present in milk. However, pasteurization and the process of introducing healthy bacterial cultures used in making cheese should get rid of the BCG, but if you drank unpasteurized milk you could have diarrhea, cramping and inflammation of lymph nodes.

These are just a few that I can think of. In any case, you probably should get a second medical opinion from a gastroenterologist at a major academic medical center, like Johns Hopkins or Harvard Medical schools where there may be experts in these kinds of disease.

While you are being tested you might as well also get a test for HIV because having diarrhea for 5 years is not incompatible with this viral infection.

Answer 3

sorry to hear about that. My mom had something kinda like that. but it was from a drug she was taking....the doctors couldnt find anything wrong even though she was only on the medicine for about 2 weeks. but it lasted from like Jan to may...
maybe try going over the meds you have been on to see if there is any help. i wish i could do more.
-ash

Answer 4

mabey u just hav REALLY bad alergies.