What does "stomach flu" really mean?

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I recently learned in my Microbiology class that there is no such thing as the stomach flu. Flu viruses affect your respiratory tract and not the GI tract. Also, what is often called a "stomach flu" is usually food poisoning caused by Staph. aureus. So then why is this term used in hospitals as a diagnosis if its not correct? What am I missing? I'm just curious so please correct me if I'm wrong about anything. Thanks in advance.

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Are you saying you've seen that written in a patient's medical record as their medical diagnosis?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

That's not a medical diagnosis that you would ever see in a patient's chart. I think your micro teacher was using the layman's term for symptoms such as nausea/vomiting, fever, and general malaise. :)

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I think part of the reason the term is still in use is because of habit. It's sometimes hard to switch terminology after you've been using the same word your entire career. The other part is that it is a more "friendly" term with patients. Most of them tend to freak out when we tell them they have "gastroenteritis." They think it's some exotic deadly disease until we explain otherwise. :) As for being used as the diagnosis in charts, I have never seen it. Everyone I know writes "gastroenteritis."

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Are you saying you've seen that written in a patient's medical record as their medical diagnosis?

By diagnosis I meant that I've heard people say that the doctor told them they had stomach flu. Which makes sense if that's the friendly way of saying someone has gastroenteritis.

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