Prof Baker said cases of gastroenteritis and food poisoning tend to peak in summer. "The ones you really need to watch out for are bacteria that may multiply at room temperature on food, like salmonella and the staph toxin is produced by food that's left out," he said. But to avoid putting more of a dampener on Christmas than a burst of rain at a barbecue, or receiving an ugly sweater from a relative, acute overnight hospital admissions on Christmas Day are surprisingly low. "There are still 760 acute admissions on Christmas Day. He said there was also a jump on Boxing Day, which may indicate people were deferring treatment until the next day.

Source: Otago Daily Times December 23, 2018 21:11 UTC