the term gastroenteritis is broad even when used by doctors says jay solnick md professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist at the university of california davis school of medicine. "if i was talking to a colleague and told him a patient of mine had gastroenteritis my colleague would expect that i meant he had nausea or vomiting or diarrhea " he says. generally however it means irritated and inflamed stomach and intestines (the gastrointestinal tract) and may be due to any number of things including bacteria or viruses or parasites which can spread quickly through contaminated food or water.
what is gastroenteritis?