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Food poisoning and stomach bugs: the signs, fluids, when to get care, and keeping it from spreading
For anyone who is throwing up or has diarrhea after something they ate, a stomach bug going around at home, at work or in a shelter, someone who can’t keep fluids down, or a question about when it is safe to go back to work or cook for others. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) says most people with food poisoning get better on their own, and CDC says norovirus, the “stomach bug”, is the leading cause of vomiting and diarrhea in the US. This page passes on, by name, what CDC and NIDDK say: the signs and when to get care, what to drink and eat, getting checked, keeping norovirus from spreading, and safer food. It builds the words to say to a clinic, and prints a sick-day card.
Right now
- Someone has fainted, is very hard to wake, or has trouble breathing or swallowing: call 911 (ours).
- Blurred or double vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, weakness, or confusion? NIDDK says nervous system symptoms mean seeing a doctor or going to an emergency room right away.
- Signs of dehydration: very thirsty, peeing much less, dark urine, dizzy when standing? NIDDK says see a doctor or go to an emergency room right away.
More help
- For a baby or child: Vomiting and diarrhea in a baby or child · Fever in a baby or child · A baby or child: find the right page.
- When it might be something else: A poisoning (medicines, cleaners) · Sepsis · Hepatitis · Morning sickness.
- Food and home: When you need food · When the power goes out · A place to stay.
- Care and keeping track: When you need a doctor and can’t pay · My medicines list · Symptom diary.
- In a crisis: Help right now (988, 911). All our free tools.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor or nurse has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 15, 2026 on CDC’s food safety pages Food Safety Basics (updated March 9, 2026), Food Poisoning Symptoms and Preventing Food Poisoning (November 24, 2025) and People at Increased Risk for Food Poisoning (January 31, 2025); on CDC’s norovirus pages About Norovirus and How Norovirus Spreads (April 24, 2024) and How to Prevent Norovirus (January 13, 2025); and on NIDDK’s Food Poisoning pages (NIH): Definition & Facts, Symptoms & Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment (last reviewed June 2019). Ours: calling 911 for fainting, being very hard to wake, or trouble breathing or swallowing; calling a clinic the same day for blood in the stool, a high fever or not keeping liquids down; never mixing bleach with other cleaners; telling shelter staff; the notes on writing things down; and the order of the steps. What we left out: clinical pages for providers, the names of medicines and products (ask a pharmacist), the table of germs, and national counts. This page saves nothing and loads no trackers.