- Drink plenty of fluids, such as water, sports drinks or Pedialyte (which can help replace lost electrolytes), and clear broths.
- If you’re having trouble keeping anything down, try sipping small amounts of water or sucking on ice chips.
- Eat saltine crackers or pretzels to replace electrolytes (sodium is an electrolyte).
- Eat small meals throughout the day.
- Do not take antidiarrheal medicine unless your doctor recommends it; these medications may prolong diarrhea from a salmonella infection and may lead to other complications.
If your doctor is concerned that you may be at risk for severe dehydration, or if you have a high fever or severe abdominal pain, they may recommend you go to the hospital for treatment with intravenous fluids and monitoring.
Medication Options
If you have a weakened immune system or if your symptoms are severe and not getting better, your doctor may prescribe antibiotics to treat your salmonella infection. Antibiotics may be recommended for:
- People with severe illness (such as high fever, severe diarrhea, or bacteria that has spread to their bloodstream)
- Adults older than 50 with underlying medical conditions, such as heart disease
- Adults 65 and older
- Infants younger than 1 year
- People with compromised or weakened immune systems (such as cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy or people with HIV/AIDS)
Doctors may prescribe antibiotics, such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro), azithromycin (Zithromax), and ceftriaxone, to treat patients with severe salmonella infections. But antibiotic-resistant salmonella has become a problem in recent years. Infections from these “multi-drug-resistant strains” of salmonella can be more severe and result in higher rates of hospitalization.
As many as 16 percent of the salmonella strains that cause foodborne illness are now identified as being resistant to at least one essential antibiotic — resulting in an estimated 212,500 cases a year. And an estimated 2 percent of salmonella has been shown to be resistant to three or more antibiotics, which translates into approximately 20,800 cases a year.
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