Take wet wipes out with you when doing the trips as you'll never find anywhere to wash.

I strongly disagree with the tip on the probiotic drinks. Taking such bacteria is gonna have no effect when you ingest pathogens contained within foods or waterborne parasites such as Cryptosporidium or Giardia.

I am an Environmental Health Officer, just so you know this is coming from an informed source.

Hi Mooby

Thats a shame , i thought that was a good idea and was going to take Yakult for 2 weeks before we went. Obviously i dont know anything about
what you were saying but i just thought building up your good bacteria to fight any bad bacteria might have worked. I suppose thats why i dont have a job in Enviornmental Health.
Thanks for the info

Debs

Sorry if I sounded pedantic at all - its just that I think companies put too much emphasis on the health benefits of these products, although on the whole they can provide some people with improved GI tracts.

Travellers tummy is very common and cant always be attributed to foods consumed, climatic change etc play their part as well.

I' d always ask the hotel where the food is prepared what kind of water treatments they carry out, if any, to get a better perspective on how strongly they treat their food saferty policy.

Jeannette.

Probiotics are useful to some people in everyday life, that is to say, some individuals have stomach problems throughout life, and these drinks help them in the day-to-day issues they have with digestive issues.

To clarify, they will provide you with little to no benefit (and my opinion rests with the latter) in preventing travellers tummy.

I've heard about money carrying germs before and there are a few articles about it on the internet...

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1511/is_n10_v19/ai_21145379

http://pffc-online.com/mag/paper_dirty_money/

http://www.sproutnet.com/Press/another_reason.htm

I always wash my hands as soon as possible after handling money in any country as I think it's common knowledge money is a carrier of germs.

they wipe there bum with the left hand and eat with the right.it is the same in india.

on the subject of money...a documentry on tv some time back had a close look at english money,and traces of cocaine was found on a high majority of notes. apparantley abusers roll the paper money up, and allegedley £50 notes are favoured and insterted up the nostral to snort up a line of coke.
so if you pay for a sandwich with a snot ridden note and the eat the sandwich with the same hand you used to pay for the sandwich.the germs, and its either salmonela or botulism that comes from the nasel tract winds up on your sandwich and therefore in your mouth,now to me this sounds very feasable. and because of this i will always take precautions,i dont think this is misleading anyone,but if you are happy not to use such caution that is your decision,personally i prefer to think i am clean

Hi Linzi

After reading the threads Pippy posted i will definatly be carrying a small bottle of that handwash with me .

Debs

i guess thats why they call it dirty money and then launder it..

My, my! Only went out to do the weekly shop and its taken me 20 mins to read up on this thread!

My own doctor advised me that dirty banknotes could indeed be a source from which one could develop tummy problems. The paper money in Egypt and also in Thailand has been some of the dirtiest that I have encountered in 40 years of travelling. Most of the notes that you get from an ATM or a bank are not too bad, but when you begin to collect change from shops etc., UGH!!!

Regards,

Roger.

Here's a rough breakdown in a single post that hopefully answers the various replies to this thread.

1. Bacteria, and particularly food poisoning bacteria, require specific environments to live and multiply in.
2. Food poisoning bacteria are particularly 'fussy' about the environment they will live in.
3. By environment, I mean they require certain pH, temperature, water and oxygen availability and so on.
4. Different food poisoning bacteria, if ingested require what is known as an 'infective dose' in order to cause illness on the recipient. In some cases we're talking milions, this simply isn't possible on bank notes.
5. People in the UK carry and handle paper money, it is not clean, but it does not contain sufficient quantities of bacteria to cause gastrointestinal disease, unless you ate 2 Kg of it (a guess).
6. Of the money handled in the UK, there are many Muslim shop keepers who practise the same methods as described in an earlier post, but who here runs around wiping their hands with Anti-bactericidal wipes on a regular basis?
7. The distinct proliferation of anti-bactericidal products contributes to the pandemic of bacterial resisitance.
8. Carrot - yes there is a difference of opinion here, its just that this is my job and I talk from an infomed perspective on the topic - again, I dont wanna be a pedant here.
9. There have been many different types of research carried out to investigate the possible causes of travellers tummy, and many theories postulated, it doesnt mean they must be correct - they are theories...not proof.
10. If you wish to believe that money is the largest cause of food poisoning, go for it, but I suggest a read of the statistics on the CDC website, based in the USA.
11. Money is not clean, but neither are toilet door handles, seats on public buses, ad infinitum.
12. If you want to run around with packets of Anti-Bac wipes, be my guest.
13. Anyone can search the 'net and find articles to support or refute a theory, does that mean it's right?
14. I have been an Environmental Health Officer for a number of years, I'm not here to blow my trumpet, but I have the background to provide sound advice on this matter - you may wish to continue doing what you want, fair enough, I was merely trying to help.
15. ijduffel - you appear to be trying to disparage my opinions with nothing more than heresay, I shall however let others decide whose advice is more tangeble, and we're not debating anything here.

N.B.

Egypt is a developing country. Such nations simply don't have the same standards of hygiene present in the UK. Precautions to avoid upset stomachs are as follows:

i) Avoid tap water.
ii) Avoid uncooked foods that are prepared using untreated tap water; salads, raw fruit and veg.
iii) Avoid ice containing untreated tap water.
iv) Drink plenty of bottled water - dehydration causes illness of this type too.
v) Be careful when swimming in pools - waterborne parasites are an increasingly prevalent cause of GI illness. Therefore avoid swallowing water.
vi) Seek medical advice if in doubt.

From my experience here I would say that swimming pools are a greater risk than contaminated food, mainly because people tend not to be aware of the risk.

Many pools are properly treated, but slip ups can happen and on a hot sunny day an over used and crowded pool can be a source of the tummy bugs.

Hot sunny weather and the local stella beer are also great laxatives and keep you on the move !

And I usually wash my hands after touching lots of dirty bank notes - even if they are not infected, its all psychological. I would feel yukky if I did nt wash my hands.

Ian... yes you are right about the left and the right hand, but funny enough when eating with the bedouins I have observed that they do often use both hands. But then, everyone washes their hands after the loo ! But I guess that's why we shake hands with the right hand. Also, funny but the Egyptian when they kiss as a greeting often do make contact with the kiss but the Saudis and the bedouins do not.

Here is the official advice from the Department of Health on the best ways to avoid food poisoning. If anyone here doubting my advice would care to compare and contrast this page with the contents of my post on page 2, perhaps this may alleviate some concerns. There is no mention of money, oddly enough.

Click HereFor Dept of Health info

Pippy originally posted this link on the thread 'ATM availability and vaccinations' - credit where it's due.

*edit to shrink link which was stretching the page - Glynis*

Being someone who works and lives in Sharm El Sheikh - Egyptian Bellies are very common.

If you are bringing out any types of medication to warn off bad tummies, immodium doesn't touch the sides.

The main reasons are

1. Dehydration - sysmptons includes, headaches, sickness, diarrhearra and dizziness. Bring rehydration salts with you, or you can buy them here at dive centres, pharmacies and some hotels for approx £5. We cannot stress enough the need to drink lots of water, remember swimming, snorkelling, diving and drinking alcohol will dehydrate you even more. Rehydration is not only drinking when you feel thirsty!! Symptons should not last more than 24hrs after fluid & salt replacement.

2. Discentry - Hot all year round temperatures, hold and breed bacteria so it is possible to catch a bug of a simlar catergory to Discentry (not nice) normally lasting 5-7 days and can reoccur. Bring an anti-spasmatic, dissenfectant and rehydrant. Do not eat or drink any diary products.

These are the most common types we see here and hope it helps anyone that is worried about foods and types of medication to bring.

Never had any troubles with Egypt. In fact the only time I have had trouble was in Tanzania last year due to poorly cooked pork.

i've been a frequent visiter to eygpt over quite a few year the best thing i've found and the cheapest is if you have a bad tummy or do need rehydration med's buy them at the local chemist in resort the pharmisist speak very good english and the local med's work better than anything i've ever taken over from the UK

TLC

went to hurghada at xmas ate sensible, probably drank way to much and didnt replace with water and stuff, and was ill for a week was taking immodium at resort after 3rd or 4th day of it went to chemist who said its a different bug over there and immodium is a waste of time! he gave me some medication and that still took 3-4 days before i felt ok the chemist was superb shame there not has helpful in uk
not put me off egypt though going in july will see if i learnt my lesson (twice as hot i know must be mad)

if you are poorly immodium (loperamide) only keeps the bad stuff in.
Nifuroxazide - Antinal is sold in Egypt and was the best thing we had, it was what all the pharmasists were giving people and only cost a couple of quid - the Doctor at the hotel was prescribing the same thing for £50!

I think you have to expect this sort of thing really if you go abroad full stop. I have been a few places now and different countries do different things to your digestion. I went to Kenya last year annd had the trotskis for a week after, can't complain, in the end as I lost 10 lbs but the warnings are there and you accept it. Wherever you go, even in this country people have different perceptions of hygiene. I shall take a case full of immodium, keep my legs crossed and hope for the best!!