Souvenirs of India!

Alan D

Apart from the presents we brought home for friends and family we have now discovered we both brought home some unwanted souvenirs.

During our last two weeks in India both Caroline and I experienced severe stomach cramps and the runs but this was more an inconvenience than anything else. Mine went but Caroline was still having problems back in UK so she visited our local doctor and had some tests done. The result was that she had campylobacter, a fairly harmless bacterium which apparently leaves the body in less than two weeks. No medical treatment was needed but our local environmental health people wanted forms filled up as it is a notifiable disease in UK.

Some days later her doctor phoned again to say something else had been found - entamoeba histolytica. This was a litttle more serious. It's a protozoa and a close relative of giardia lamblia and in some cases can cause intestinal and liver damage. She was put on a course of antibiotics.

The doctor then decided to test me also and entamoeba histolytica was found - the campylobacter had probably run its course. Although this is not life-threatening it's not nice to know that these parasitic animals have made themselves at home in my guts!

We have both been questioned by the local environmental health people about what we ate, drank, etc and we think it most likely that it was water that we drank in the hills of Uttaranchal, though it's always difficult to pinpoint the cause.

I am posting this as advice to travellers who have had similar problems in India. It's worth having some tests done when you return home. For Brits, it's all free on our wonderful National Heath Service. For others, you may be able to claim on your travel health insurance.

If you want to read more about what may be swimming around in your insides, this is a very informative site

http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/intro.html

vistet

This brings up memories..i had campylobacter as well when i returned last time.

Amoebas... hate to sound judgmental, but they are really bad lodgers.
The way I remember it , campylobacter is foodborne (chicken etc.). Amoebas are found in water. Since they are large, they are easily removed by filters.

paan wallah

i love amoebias
I get them every time i m in India..
Once I retutrned I had a very nice souvenir,the last days in Dehli I bought some saris,lungis and other textiles,a few days later back home a big itching and scratching started...the textiles were full of flees!
So everytime you buy some textiles you should wash it immiadetely when you re back home

vistet

Another model : i put everything (yes, boots and camera as well) in my pack either directly in the washing machine or the freezer the moment i`m back.

Midnite Toker

Sorry to hear about your and Caroline's woes, Alan. It's always a bad final salute to an otherwise wonderful holiday to fall ill on one's return.

As you say, though, the British NHS is a great comfort if you need medical help. Out here in Austria, I get cover only when I pay my social insurance - thus, nothing for a month when returning from a long trip (or I go private, which is beyond my means), and even when covered I have to pay 20% of the cost of anything. Don't let the "New Labour" drones tell you a social insurance system is the way ahead for NHS funding!

So I always am sure to bring a medicine chest of drugs (prescription ones) back to tide me over. Antiprotozoals, antihelminthics (against worms), antibiotics, antiinflammatories... Fortunately, I've not needed any of them yet.

Call me plain lucky, but one thing I believe is really important (and this could be an addendum to the "Where do you get your drinking water?" poll) is
never to drink untreated water, however pure it seems. Wells get seepage from septic tanks, a restaurant's assurance of boiled water may be as threadbare as its claim to offer the best food.

Protozoal infections (bad though they are) are the least of it, actually - Hep A is a real risk, and the charming Guinea Worm (common in Rajasthan) could make itself at home in your system. I met a women on another trip who began by telling me she had developed a resistance to bugs in the water by drinking it from tubewells in villages. Then she asked me what the segmented, raised marks just under the skin near her navel were.

I'd never seen Guinea Worm before, but this was surely one. Removal is a combination of drugs and surgery (nasty!), and these things can get l----o----n----g! So for me, to avoid having to break out the drugs cabinet, it's always BOIL or FILTER or IODINE (bottled water in an emergency).

I also never trust anyone when they tell me the "salad is safe" because it has been soaked (in steriliser). I used to do that in Kathmandu, but after numerous courses of Tinidazole - never again!

Agree with vistet: Amoebae*** are really bad lodgers. The animals themselves are large, but don't forget the little cysts they make when they want to hitch a ride somewhere else. I think filters are fine, but I'm always happier with boiling.

I hope you both get well soon, and remember - no sex for a month (to avoid cross-infection)!

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*** Pedant spot: Transatlantic laziness has got to Europe now, but I'm resisting it tooth and claw. Plural of amoeba is amoebae.

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vistet

I am convinced that the campylobacter strain i encountered was courtesy of Aeroflot ; no shadow on Mother India for that.

Your encounter with the woman with the Guinea worm reminnds me of another painful illustration of a good water taboo : always avoid contact with slow moving pools of water. Met this guy in Nepal who had forded a stream in the easiest place and had a really bad case of what looked like a varicose vein halfway up to the knee. This was the trace of the leech that had eaten it`s way up... eeew.

When I said large , i meant compared to bacteria and viruses. There are good reasons to not trust filters blindly for all kind of bad lodgers, i agree. Say hello (and goodbye, caught in the filter) to Giardia :

PS. I`ll keep on my toes against that darned transatlantic trait in the future..