Upset stomachs cause loss of 11 million work days

Nearly 17 million people suffer from stomach upsets in the UK every year, leading to around 11 million lost working days, new research by The University of Manchester has found.

The study, published today by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), is the biggest of its kind for more than 10 years and looked at the impact of all cases of infectious intestinal disease (IID), not just those linked to food, on the UK population.

IID is typically vomiting or diarrhoea, or a combination of the two. The research was carried out by a group of organisations led by Manchester.

The research found:

Up to 17 million cases of IID are reported annually, which is the equivalent of one in four people becoming ill during the year Approximately 50 per cent of people with IID took time off from work or school because of their symptoms. The University of Manchester has calculated that this represents nearly 19 million days lost - more than 11 million of these were in people of working age For every case of IID recorded in national surveillance there are 147 that are unreported Viruses, particularly norovirus, and the bacteria campylobacter are the most common causes of IID

Norovirus was identified as the largest cause of IID in the UK. Although many norovirus infections are spread by person-to-person transmission, it does have the potential to cause foodborne disease and is included in the Agency's Foodborne Disease Strategy 2010–2015.

The study also shows that campylobacter was the main cause of bacterial IID in the UK, which emphasises the need to reduce the high levels found on raw poultry in the UK.