Gastric or Stomach Flu? Part 2

So what about Stomach Flu? Is it the same as gastritis(gastric pain)?

Stomach Flu
Stomach Flu is also known as Gastroenteritis. It is an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, involving both the stomach and the small intestine and resulting in acute diarrhea.

Causes: The inflammation is caused most often by infection with certain viruses, less often by bacteria or their toxins, parasites, or adverse reaction to something in the diet or medication. Non-infectious causes can include seafood(shellfish) poisoning or heavy metals poisoning. Infectious causes include bacteria like Salmonella and E.Coli. It can also be cause by viruses.

Symptoms: Diarrhoea is very common and frequent. Sometimes there may be vomitting. There's also abdominal pain or cramps, and sometimes fever too.

Treatment: See a doctor immediately. Stomach Flu can be anything from common food poisoning to serious life-threatening infections such as E.Coli. Antibiotic will not work in cases of viral infection. Oral rehydration is very important, so make sure you sip water (use oral salts whenever available) frequently. Get plenty of rest and wait it out. Doctors may normally prescribe medication to curd the symptoms than to cure the problem itself. eg: anti-spasmotics for cramps, antinauseants for vomiting etc. A blood or stool test may be also taken to see if it's a serious infection (eg: parasitic).

Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastroenteritis

CONCLUSION
If you're feeling an acute pain in the upper abdomen, and slightly to the left, most of the time it is gastritis. Vomitting is more common in gastritis than stomach flu. It can happen when we eat infrequent or unbalance meals.(eg: fasting in the morning and noon, and over-eating at night). It is a nagging pain. For stomach flu, diarrheoea is most common. Symptoms are akin to food poisoning. Lots of water loss, stomach cramps, possible fever, feeling really weak, and possible vomitting.