Prevention of gastrointestinal infections in India

I looked at this site before I first went to India. I love this site.
zi love India and have worked in places tourists would never go.
A few simple rules.
Enjoy your trip, don't get bogged down in health etc, just use common sense. You can get sick anywhere, not just India. Do you really think India people are not clean, and are immune from all disease? Really, I don't think so.
A lot of times, runny stools is just due to all the stuff you don't do at home in front of your PC, like walking, drinking lots of water, heaven forbid..eating healthy foor instead of stogy burgers (Like me, at times) It's not food poisoning, its health bowel cleaning.
I travelled all over India including working in Leper colonies etc and treating really sick people. I didnt get sick once. Not like some others
1) Wash your hands often. Just do it okay!
2) Street vending is fine, dont look at the cleanliness of the equipment, look at thier hands! Some wipe thier hands on shorts, then handle your food. Dont eat from these.
3) Dont use toilet paper, use water under pressure. I always used a antiseptic handwash afterwards.
4) I ALWAYS run a "steripen" through even bottled water to break the DNA strands of everything in the water. WHY, because it is common to have people collect the empty water bottle lazy, disrespectful tourist throw on the floor. These are filled up with tap water and superglue back on. Trust me, it goes on all over the world.
5) Rince any fruit with bottled water. Same for fresh vegetables.
Rather than buy bottled water all the time, i carry the "Steripen" and use tapwater.
6) Iodine stresses your liver as this is how it is filtered out of your system. Dont use it to often. Yes I know people say it's safe...these are the ones who have no medical experience.
7) Carry a basic first aid kit. So many get small cuts which can be infected. It's tropical, and you sweat. = infection risk
8) Be nice. If you act like a (thinking of clean words) bad tourist. You will have tricks played on you. Just like you get anywhere else in the world.
9) If you are going to eat meat, make sure you know where you are eating. Ask around, see where the locals eat, ask tourists, ask the monks etc.
10) Clean your teeth with bottled water.
If, like me, you love the street side Chai tea, I have drunk..lost count, hundreds from street side vendors. Never got sick once. I look for how clean the glasses are and how clean the vendor is.
11) Wash your face with clean water. It can get sweaty and dirty at times. Same as anywhere.
12) When you drink out of any container, the contents may be clean, but look at the part you are going to put your lips on! where has that been? This should apply to back home as well. Wash it first.

The above are just a few basic tricks.
One BIG word of advice. Send me a post card for advice on this one If you are going on a long bus ride etc. Do not eat spicy food the day before you go. Sitting with spicy food in your stomach and swaying around will give you very very loose stools. Put it this way, and i wish not to offend..I gave some advice about food before a bus trip to some US ladies. They ignored the advice. They paid the bus driver $100 to pull over so they could crap. Lets just say, they made it about 5 feet before squatting right in front of all the passengers. Shame is out the window. They never doubted my advice again. As for the $100, this was a fine for the bus driver because they have to keep to a strict timetable. Its not about making money.
Take your own food on the bus as the places you stop at have crap food anyway. Take chips, bottled water, Sandwiches whatever you like.

Don't be rude! and think of Indians as dirty people, just because they have some less than fancy street side carts and shops. They take pride in themselves and there are ways of asking about clean water etc. Please dont think you are better than them, just because you have a credit card in your pocket.
Go easy on the booze, your not at home and booze will dry you out as it is a diuretic.
Before you go anywhere from your homeland, have pro-biotics and build up your stomach a bit. This helps anywhere.
Dont swim in the rivers and get water in your mouth. You can get all sorts including Guardia. Send me an email if you do get it and i will help you get to the right place for equipment. The local hospitals don't all do it correctly.
Love India!!

Good advice, Max44 - thanks

I have to admit that I had never heard about spicy foods and long bus rides before. Yikes! Now I know.

I disagree that the food served at bus stops is always crap - like so many things, your mileage may vary. On our last trip to India in '10 we took one of those long all day 'milk run' bus tours from Delhi to Agra to Vrindaban to Mathura...there are probably some places I forgot...then back to Delhi around 11PM. I remember we stopped at dhabas for breakfast and dinner and it was some of the best food I have ever had - the breakfast parathas were to die for. The food was very fresh and hot and I didn't get sick from it. These tours are popular with budget-minded Indians(who want to see lots of places but don't want to have to spend a night away from home) and I think if they stopped at a crap place then the word would spread among their friends.

giripriya

I'm glad you made a contribution on the 'advice' of Max44.

I felt I'd initiated too many comments about such dictums and was hesitant.

That said, I refer readers to my comment at #911 on the previous page.

There, I commented to Heather that the seemingly extreme view she was articulating reflected a cultural stereotype.

I suggest the comments by Max44 also reflect a cultural stereotype.

There is nothing necessarily wrong with anything Max44 writes. Most of the comments are basic hygiene type issues.

Rather, it's the way it is said.

Being a self confessed 'combat medic', my hunch is that Max44 has adopted the cultural position of the US government adopted into the Oz defence forces - aggression towards others is the first rule of defence.

My view is that people who pursue the sort of approach suggested by Max44 tend to shut themselves off towards engaging in the local culture. It is as if they MUST be on guard at all times to preserve their own view.

On the same topic, I suggested to Onegreen in post 914...

"when travelling around this globe ...I so often come across people who are visiting a country but are so cocooned in their home way of life they fail to experience that essential attribute they (purportedly) came to visit - the local culture.

I appreciate we have to defend ourselves from potential problems, but I wonder sometimes whether we become so beholden to our 'defense' systems we actually go too far. "


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BruceMoon, I really don't understand why you have a problem with Max44's post. As you said, it's basic hygiene. These are not unreasonable rules and following them would not cocoon anyone.

During my second trip I did not follow the basic safety rules every time while eating, and I paid the price. I did get sick the second trip, and each time I could pinpoint what I did to make myself sick. It's not cultural stereotype to suggest that people wash their hands and face or carry a first aid kit.

I do agree with giripriya that not all bus stop food is crap. I only ate at one bus stop (and I didn't even ride a bus - I just assumed it was a bus stop because of the buses parked in front of it) and the food was very good.

But a list of general hygiene suggestions is not a bad idea.

Disagree. The local Indians that I acquainted with had much the same standards as Max44 writes about and were always on guard about these issues. There are many levels of hygiene standards, expectations and values amongst human beings ... and you'll find that these culinary/health codes know no international or racial borders.

Max44,
That reads like some excellent advice - thank you for taking the time to post it.

DaisyL

As I wrote...

"There is nothing necessarily wrong with anything Max44 writes. Most of the comments are basic hygiene type issues.

Rather, it's the way it is said ."

- - -

If I offended Max44 (and others), apologies.

Maybe I'm overreacting to those preposterous 'tourists' I'm so often encountering who just seem to be telling locals - as against listening and engaging with them. Max44's writings come across like that to me.

Perhaps Max44's details might better have been located in a new thread.

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Yes, indeed. There is a huge difference between what some tourists think or assume that educated locals do, and what they actually do.

Common it is not I'm afraid in fact I've never come across a refilled bottle in all my time in India, Superglued back on say what?

I ran into a refilled bottle on my very first day in India in 1992. The waiter came at us with his hand on the top and set it down on the table with a flourish while taking the top off. It was a rather beat up old bottle, dripping wet and leaking from a couple of tiny holes, so it couldn't have been standing full on the shelf.

But then I haven't seen another in 20 years.

That gave me a chuckle..

I can't remember buying too many bottles of water in India ... they are usually complimentary & in quantity in your hotel room - supplied both for drinking, teeth brushing & extras easily accessible on demand for excursions. The nasty rumor about refilled water runs rampant though .... so it might well hold some pani - depending on the locales one does 'business' in.

I think we must be staying in totally different hotels, PeakXV; I have stayed at a couple of places where clean water is provided, but certainly not in sealed bottles... and whatever process they use to clean the water (UV?), it always tastes to me like fish have been swimming in it.

" .... so it might well hold some pani -"... heh heh - very good PeakXV!
We've all heard these (no doubt, perfectly valid) rumours but, thankfully, I've not yet encountered one of these "locally recycled' bottles.
Possibly, it pays to be careful when selecting your water seller, I don't know, but I'm pretty careful who I buy our water from.