We were OK for the first week, stayed at the Tropicana Sea Beach in Nabiq Bay. They use sanitised water for washing food, cooking and salads. Chefs wear gloves when handling food. They also have a English trained Food Hygienist who carries out regular checks. We used hand gel, which the hotel also have outside the restaurant and in the toilet area.

Then we went on the Desert Stars trip with a Bedouin meal. Whilst the food is prepared in a hotel and sent out in sealed containers, the Bedouins make and bake the naan bread. We ate some despite never seeing them washing their hands. We then got mummy tummy, though it wasn't ever diarrhea just the need to go frequently, specially after meals. After a few days of this we went down to the local pharmacy and got a two medicine treatment. This cleared it up, but caused my wife to collapse on our last day.

The doctor who was called to her told us that it was probably the bread (never it eat outside the hotel he said) and her collapse was due to one of the medicines that works by lowering blood pressure. As she was also taking UK medicine prescribed to do the same the combination resulted in very low blood pressure which caused her collapse. She needed an IV drip and two further drugs to get her back home that day. £300 worth of treatment.

We had mentioned the prescribed medicine and showed the pharmacist the prescription form with the names of it on. He had said it was fine to carry on taking them as well. The doctor told us that Egyptian pharmacists are not as well trained as UK ones.

Richard

Hope your wife has recovered now Richard . What an ordeal

Some usefull info there . Thanks for sharing it with us .

lyn

She recovered quite quickly and was OK to travel home. She visited our doctor on return who wasn't too interested! Just felt a bit tired back here for the last few weeks - but that's probably down to the cold weather as I did too!

This is a subject which doesn't appear to have any clinical research backing. You'd expect to find something on nhs direct - but not so!

It's also a shame the holiday rep just suggested visiting the pharmacist, without the proviso of it being better to see the local doctor. We discovered he actually visited the hotel for a hour each day!

Richard

Just got back (last night) and even though I followed all the advice/tips on here I still got a stomach upset. Visited pharmacy and the tabs he prescribed seemed to clear me up, however it has all started again today. Have made an appointment with my Dr to see if they can help. This is the first time in 36 years of travelling that I have been ill. Have been all over the world including numerous AI establishments, cruises etc but never ever had a problem. There must be something inherently wrong for this to happen to so many different people? Even though I enjoyed it there is no way in hell I would ever go back, it is like having a holiday with a loaded gun at your head.

Sorry to hear of your troubles Dojo ....

Can you clarify the gun comment please?
Was that due to the current problems that are raging in Egypt as opposed to any everyday situation even outside these troubled times?

Regards

Van

it is like having a holiday with a loaded gun at your head.

my interpretation is that Dojo feels if you go on holiday to Egypt you will get a stomach upset however you just don't know when so you are constantly waiting for it to happen so this ruins your holiday somewhat !

Very sorry about that analogy, looking back with the present unrest there I should have used something
different Maybe I should have used the sword of damocles? and not the gun comparison, sorry.
Whilst there we had no problems with security or feeling of danger at all.

The description that Kiltman gives is spot on and is exactly what I meant. If I went back it would always be in the back of my mind what happened whilst there and that for me is not what a holiday is about, and that is why I would never ever go back.

Hi dojoman

I knew what you meant and so didnt think about the current problems.

Its annoying isn't it.

I feel the same although have been a few times and am going back, but as you say it's always at the back of my mind. I guess some of us are prepared to put up with that uncertainity and others aren't and I can respect that.

I personally dont buy the aircon/change in temperature stuff or touching the money, think it is down to poor food preperation conditions and poor hygiene in kitchens. If it was external temperature and going from air con to heat and vice-versa 100% would get it all the time as we are all subject to the same conditions.

The only huge variable in the equasion is the food, so I reckon its varying levels of food posioning from mild to severe depending on how lucky/unlucky you are.

Can't agree!

The first week we pigged ourselves and didn't get ill. It was only after going on the Desert Stargazing trip, and eating the naan bread we succumbed. The doctor who attended my wife when she collapsed said never eat naan bread outside of a hotel restaurant, as it is the most handled foodstuff there is. Certainly the Bedouins didn't wear plastic gloves and were never seen to wash hands. Indeed members of the trip were invited to make the bread and were not asked to wash hands first.

The hotel (Tropicana Sea Beach) restaurant staff all wore gloves, and it was the little things that impressed. Like on one counter during a lull with, surprisingly, no one taking food. The chef behind the counter putting out food, chicken pieces I think it was, dropped one picked it up and took it out into the kitchen where I saw him put it in a bin. He then re-entered the restaurant and washed his hands and put on a fresh pair of gloves. And I'm convinced he did not see me watching him from across the way! At that hotel at least, hygiene is drummed into them.

And there is a reference on trip advisor to a health food writer's website where she quotes research proving the cold/hot theory.

richard

You say you dont agree, but it was food/poor hygiene that caused your problems albeit outside of the hotel. Maybe the hygeine standards were OK in your hotel, it doesnt mean that they are in all 200 hotels. I've stayed in 3 two were OK and one was a bit iffy and there was illness. People were sending off samples to labs which were proving food posioning. I wouldnt set huge store by anything I read on TA.

I still don`t understand why it is so prevalent in Egypt! I have visited many countries and stayed in a few AI hotels and never had a problem. I don`t buy into the AC thing either although we never used it as it was needed. I have stayed in Cyprus in July and August and have virtually left the AC on full time and never had a problem. There is something inherently wrong with Egypt for this to happen so regularly, hence 18 pages on the subject on HT alone. Anyway I have managed to get an appointment with my Dr this morning as I still feel absolutely lousy.

I agree there dojo . I've also stayed many times in Turkey during much higher temps than i've done in Egypt and my A/C is always on as it always is in Egypt . I dont buy into that at all . Personally I think that's what the Egyptian doctors like to tell us . I'm 90% sure it's food preparation & hygiene practices. Nobody can tell me people dont use A/C in the hotels without problems but they do in those with . Sorry it doesnt make sense.

I've generally been lucky and only had problems in one hotel and I'm convinced it was food poisoning . Very very different from the odd bit of looseness most of us experience on any holiday which maybe is down to change in temps etc. I had Hot/cold fever , ,was delirious (sorry spelling) and it was running through me . Still had it for a week after I returned home.

It hasnt put me off Egypt but I'm very wary of where I stay . I dont want to be in a hotel where the main topic of conversation around the poolside is what family members are laid up in bed with the squits. That says everything to me .

LOL Lyn, it isn't all that great when the 'pool talk' is how much time people are spending in the loo and which partucular Egyptian Remedy to try. I suppose I can't have let my Holiday Village experience bother me too much or I wouldn't have booked to go to the Hilton Sharks Bay.

Dojo I hope you get on OK at the Docs and you feel better soon, there are various anti-biotics they seem to be able to prescribe for this, although some don't like to and just want you to sit it out so to speak.

When abroad a lot of the Doctors seem to give injections for this problem (had them in Kenya 20 years ago ) but that doesn't seem to be the practice in the UK for some reason. If you are bothered about finding out exactly what you have been struck down by they will send a sample off to the lab, but you tend to have to press them to do this (costs money I suppose).

Doe

Thanks for the good wishes,Dr said it was food poisoning, and whilst we can do things to minimise the chances of getting anything there will always be the possibility of it happening. She said the number of cases they see with people coming from Egypt and Mexico is quite staggering. She has told me to carry on drinking plenty of fluids. and to eat dry toast, boiled rice and bananas. If after 8 days it has not stopped I am to take a stool sample in. I asked about antibiotics, and they are reluctant to give them as they can reduce your immune system.
I have now lost a stone in 3 days, but it is starting to settle down.

A stone in three days.

I think a lot of these things are self-limiting in so far as if you are a healthy adult they will eventually clear up on their own. But it doesn't make you feel any better at the time when you are going through it. Hopefully you will get better soon.

With your having mentioned Mexico. I seem to remember that there was a period of a few years back when people travelling to the Dominican Republic were getting a lot of these types of stomach problems and the British Tour Operators in conjunction with a lot of Hotel Groups and Hoteliers out their implemented stringent hygiene regimes and the problem was curtailed to a greater extent so its isn't an insurmountable problem. But it's another matter to get the authorities to take it on board as a real issue and so long as people keep going and it doesnt affect profits too much I can't see the same thing happening in Egypt.

As most people would be going with a UK travel agent I would think that they are obliged to enforce UK hygiene regulations on the hotels they use. Certainly the BBC1 Watchdog spin off seemed to suggest that. It would be worth knowing!

Secondly I was horrified that NHS Direct do not have a do and don'ts on hygiene in Egypt.

Richard

Mmm. I'm not sure how UK hygiene regulations could be imposed on hotels in Egypt? I would imagine that maybe they could make recommendations and occassionaly they do stop listing hotels in their brochures if things go really pear shaped and they get enough complaints.

When we went to Egypt last Nov for 3 weeks, i never encountered nor my husband any cramps, diarrhoea or anything. I never touch the money, i let my husband have it all, always washed hands etc. I did have ice in my drinks, ate the gorgeous salads but only drank bottled water and kept my mouth shut when showering, although to be honest i had baths.

I maybe immune to it all having been so many times:) but i still take usual precautions.

Some other people who we made friends with had cramps and were running to the loo, but they were drinkers. If you drink alcohol to the excess especially lager, you will no doubt in my mind get cramps etc. I heard some Brit saying oh i am so ill, etc but he was drinking for most of the day, so obviously it never entered his head it maybe the beer !

I only ate A1 in my hotel, so therefore if i was going to be ill, i knew where the main source had come from.

Eating out will definitely cause some people grief, all restaurants cook in different oils, spices etc and when you have mash potato especially in places like TGi's/Hard rock its tap water they use.

All our friends that did have tummy problems all ate out. Everyone is different, i am only passing on my thoughts on what happened whilst we were away. To be honest we were contipated and ate peeled fruit and still couldnt go to the loo

I do find that and still remain adamant that A/C is the primary cause, we never had it on, its so cold and it freezes your insides so causes cramps.

Of course Egypt like so many African counties are 3rd world, everyone should expect some form of un comfort because everything is so different to the UK in standards, hygiene etc.

I never ate rice, as if not hot enough causes food poisoning, i kept off any form of beef, it takes 3 days to travel through the body and is induced by bacteria. I asked for baked potato all the time, even if they didn't have it on campus or spaghetti.

If you do have troubles, winter is very rare from Nov-March, summer is a breed of bacteria ready to pounce.

Taking out the excess waiver on your insurance is an extra few quid, but visiting the doctor for a proper diagnosis is paramount as it could be anything and will be free on the excess waiver. Without it, you will pay around 80 euro for the privilege and wont see much of it back when you have to pay around £50 a claim.

A lot of travellers are frightened of the prices of doctors in Egypt, but as i say take the excess waiver out, peace of mind.

If still unsure the cheapest of all is get yourself a lovely barman bung him a few quid and ask him to get you some antinel etc from the pharmacy for a quid, other than that you will pay £8-9 for the same.

Winter temps around mid to upper 80s, in the summer in the high 40s-50s.

Hope this helps:)

Forgot to add......

1) Eat at breakfast live natural yogurt it kills bacteria. If not on display ask them.

2) if you have the runs bulk up on bread every day.

3) Keep off cola / fanta etc and drink sprite, spite is a anti bacterial in Egypt and GPs recommend this.

All the advice i give on here is from the Doctors and it works.