ABSTRACT
Terminology that overlaps with infectious diarrhea deserves clarification. Gastroenteritis, a term generally used to describe diarrhea with vomiting and abdominal pain, often is due to noninflammatory infections, but similar symptoms may be due to noninfectious causes. Food-borne disease frequently causes upper gastrointestinal symptoms after a short incubation period, especially from ingestion of preformed bacterial toxins (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus). Dysentery is a constellation of symptoms due to infection with an invasive colonic pathogen and includes small-volume stools containing blood and mucus, usually in association with fever and severe abdominal cramping.
