What's your most memorable India illness?

Vasko

NIT, you can't possibly mean those tiny capsules that film rolls are packaged in!? Not that the cup I received at the lab was much bigger!

Hahhah! Good tip though!! Maybe next time I can also use the contents of the canister to threaten any unwilling rickshawdrivers to take me STRAIGHT to the hospital...

LuAnnandJawahar

Yes yar, but you don't poop directly into it!!

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steven_ber

Not on a moving train.

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How to get helpful replies to your transport/Itinerary questions.



Train information.

Rob_The_Pom

Or in the back of an autorickshaw flying around Connaught Place...
Or perhaps you do - ahhh - that explains the mysterious appearance of it on your shoe! Shoe shine sir?

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mercedes10

Argh! This is NOT a good post for me to read - I'm going to India for the first time in July! lol! Getting ill is my biggest fear! Especially since I'm on an organised tour so there will be no time to convalesce in my guesthouse if I'm unwell. Don't fancy long journeys whilst feeling sick! but don't want to miss out on days of the tour either. I know about all the usual precautions, but does anyone have any other tips for keeping well? Or is there any preventative medicine I could take? (presumbaly taking Immodium before you get anything is not a good idea?). Would you recommend taking re-hydration sachets even if you're keeping well? Any advice greatly appreciated! :-)

Rockers

This is not as much of an illness as an injury...

I was staying at an orphanage and had a small harmless looking ant crawl down by top while I was sleeping.

It bit me over 35 times on the chest. By morning the bites had turned yellow blisters half the size of golf balls.

I was driven to the 'hospital' 4 hours away where they were soon popped by an over eager doctor who then proceeded to rub off all my blistered skin with an alcoholic swab.

Still cringe just thinking about it...

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Alan D

mercedes10

If it's any comfort you're not the only one! In a poll on this forum some time ago it ended up as being the single biggest fear that people had about visiting India.

I would say there is no point in worrying about this as worry is also not good for your general state of health!

Instead take the usual precautions - don't drink any tap water (especially in the monsoon season) and keep your hands clean.

There are no hard and fast rules as to who gets sick in India - at one end of the scale people who take very few precautions stay healthy, and at the other, people who are very careful become ill. There seems to be a large element of luck involved. Even if you do become ill a wide range of medicines is available in India and I've found that Indian doctors are pretty good on their diagnosis.

There is a lot of info in the health and safety section of the forum.

And no, don't casually use Immodium - it's only useful in an emergency, for example, if you have a long bus journey coming up! The weather in July will be hot and humid but if you drink plenty of fluids you shouldn't need the rehydration salts but you could carry some as a back-up.

If you do have any serious problems consult a doctor immediately.l

Rob_The_Pom

Excellent advice AlanD!

Jeroen

All I got till now, after two weeks of Delhi and Rajastan, is a cold (sneeze, cough) and cracked-up lips from the dryness!

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VerityWorthington

Hm...I certainly wasn't as careful as I should have been for my first 6months in Kolkata. I was staying in a slum house with a guy fpm Sydney and a guy from Dublin. The guy from Sydney got Cholera and the doctor was adament that I had it too. I felt so ill that I didn't put up much fuss as they drove me to the Assembly of God hospital on Park Street.....(great name eh) However...when I got there, and they shoved me in a bed next to a bunch of dying people....I built up the strength to escape as the nurse went to fetch the I.V!!! Dragged myself into a taxi, went back to the childrens home/dispensary where I was working, fell into the arms of a sister - who fed me ciprofloxacin and electrol sachets for two weeks.....
Hm....then there was the time when they thought I had malaria....couldn't open my eyes, head felt as if it was going to burst, very hot, kept being sick...again resorted to local medicine....and eventually recovered....
It's wierd though, alone...in the middle of the night, feeling so sick...flicking thru lonely planet thinking what exactly it could be. Then again, as Sister used to tell me, if you're well enough to flick...you're not that sick!!!!!!!

monkgonemad

actually, travels thru paki/india and nepal. not even a stomach ache -im sure i had the squirts a few times... that said, ive been in asia for years.

i am though VERY sensitive to water borne disease -particularly giardiais - 6 times (never india).

but a little story: came down from paki by train and settled into parghanghj sharing a triple with persons unknown. went round the corner of i think it was metro hotel into a little eatery. my jain frined told me -indians have not a clue how to handle meat. promise me you will not eat meat while in india. i ordered vegetable korma (one of my faves). i relayed the info to the other two guys. technically my fiend should hav etold me...a place that SERVES meat anyway...a few hours later one of the guys fell deathly ill. super high fever 102+ and stayed there for days. i was stuck in delhi for a day+. the other guy stayed to take care oif his friend. his fever was super high but his friend would not take him to hospital -even after over 24 hours. every time i came back i got him up and dragged him to shower. finally, i told his friend the guy could DIE if we did not get him to hospital. that afternoon -3rd day, the fever broke. im sure he killed a few brain cells....

eat meat in india ... i dare you ;-)

ikimasho

not india but indonesia....slept for three days with my head beside the porcelain goddess on the cool tile floor....i really thought i would die there as i was alone and no one knew where i was. three days in, i crawled to the telephone long enough to book myself on the next flight back to osaka (home). somehow, i made it to the airport -( i really have no memory of this)
never fly garuda indonesia...the air ladies were mean to me. i told them i was sick and begged not to be served a meal - the woman yelled at me "you must eat!" i kept saying "no" "no" - i was delirious and hallucinating. i immediately knocked a glass of$B!!(Borange juice all over the cabin. then she yelled at me for knocking over the juice and confiscated the food tray from me. evil death look free of charge.
the plane stopped in jakarta...i had no idea what was going on.....i had fallen asleep. i woke to different members of the garuda staff telling me to disembark...i refused...they told me the stopover was for one or two hours while they cleaned the plane. i just couldnt do it.....i put the blanket over my head and ignored their stern requests.....they had to vaccuum around me. eventually they left and i slept again until osaka. when the quarantine card came around i checked all the "no" boxes, rocked through immigration and home to my bed. recovered nicely with no meds......just one of those things.

rtp - omoshiroii shitsumon...anata wa chotto ??? maido!

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Rob_The_Pom

That's a splendid effort Ikimasho. I'm afraid my Japanese ability does rise above the 'total moron' leve though!
In fact, we've got loads of splendid illnesses! Let's keep them coming!

paan wallah

don t smoke cigarettes in the back of a bus!!!

once I was sitting in the back of a public bus,smoking a cigarette
the bus jumped and I burnt my nose very badly

mdchachi

Just found out a few days ago that both me and my wife have giardia. Thanks Rab for causing the light bulb to go off.

My symptoms were not severe but consisted of several things that caused me to put two and two together, specifically the soft stool and foul-smelling gaseous emissions -- lots of them. Also a slight feeling of queasiness when my stomach was empty & other odd times. I also threw up once in the middle of the night after a big dinner but for no apparent reason.

I had about 2 days of diarhea in India but that cleared up (via Immodium A-D) and didn't return but my guess is that that was the onset. Taking the incubation period under consideration, that means I was probably infected on my first day in Delhi, or possibly Agra, despite the fact that we were as careful as we could be.

The guess is that my wife got it from me after our return home (in jacuzzi bath perhaps) because 10 days or so later she started feeling lethargic and had a heavy stomach. No diarrhea though.

We're on metronidazole now though my symptoms had already started to recede and would probably have gone away on its own.

I also talked to the county health persons and will end up a government statistic this year. They didn't seem amused when I told them I work in a cafeteria and my wife works in a day care center and then told them I was just kidding.

So hopefully this will be my most memorable illness from India. Gotta wait for the incubation period to pass for all the other terrible afflictions and hope they don't show up.