How not to get sick on holiday in Thailand

[HHTel]

Just to underline that, this from a clinic's website:

Signs and symptoms may start within hours after eating the contaminated food, or they may begin days or even weeks later. Sickness caused by food poisoning generally lasts from a few hours to several days.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-con ... c-20356230

[uncle tom]

I don't dispute that some forms of food poisoning can take a while to kick in, but in my experience the most common scenario is eating something, getting a rumble down below fairly soon after, and then finding yourself perched on the porcelain for an extended period as your body purges your guts.

I've also had worse encounters - my worst in Thailand - probably caused by bad meat at an Indian (it tasted bad, I spat most out, but too late..) - had me dry heaving all night once..

[HuaHin61]

if I remember correctly, the problem started right after the meal, with nausea, malaise,
and finally I vomited everything back and follows with diarrhea one/two days.

If the nausea started right after the mean then it almost certainly wasn't the burger that caused it. It takes time for the body to process and get ill off of bacteria. The most common forms of food poisoning take 24-48 hours to start showing symptoms. Even the least common of the main strains of bacteria that cause food positing still takes about 6 hours.

It is extremely difficult to pinpoint where you picked up food poisoning from, and unfair to go around telling people that you caught it from business x or y. Obviously McDonalds will probably survive this particular slight, but smaller businesses can go under based on such irresponsible accusations.

I almost expected your answer, but I am sure that the cause was the McD food,
because during holiday (in tropical aereas) i eat only twice a day, breakfast and diner,
and the breakfast i got every day in the same restaurant / same hotel,
so the problem only could be caused by the food in the evening.

I don't dispute that some forms of food poisoning can take a while to kick in, but in my experience the most common scenario is eating something, getting a rumble down below fairly soon after, and then finding yourself perched on the porcelain for an extended period as your body purges your guts.

and I also follow the other good advice from the Threadstarter "uncle tom".
https://huahinforum.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 62#p473900

[MDMK]

I have to tell a wee story here, about jumping to conclusions about where food poisoning comes from, and killing reputations. Been there, done that and got it spectacularly wrong.

back in the UK when I was 17, 4 of us went out for a day, me and my pal and our 2 new boyfriends, was a Sunday, we went to a sea side town near where we lived, did the usual seasidey things, ate the usual seasidey stuff including fish n chips in a place that was pretty rank, so much so I only ate a handful of chips. Back home by 9pm. Get a frantic phone call from boyfriends mum the next morning that her son is in hospital gravely sick. He had salmonella. For a one week period it was touch and go for him in ICU. All for us kids were interviewed by environmental health officers about what we ate (all 3 of us were fine) and what he ate that day. Inspections were carried out, and samples were taken from a bakers, the chippy, and a burger van, as well as from his parents home. In the chippy I only had chips, the other two fish and chips, and the sick guy had chicken and chips. Now this chippy already had a reputation of being dirty (that much was obvious to the eye), so it's reputation went right down the pan when the news got around (as it does in small Scottish rural communities) of a strapping young lad at death's door because of their rank chicken.

When all the tests come back it turns out it came from ice cream he had eaten in his own home. His mother had got ice cream from the ice cream van and stuck that in the freezer, and that according to the env health was the culprit.

[MDMK]

Another two anecdotal evidence type remarks... very common in Egyptian red sea hotels for tons of people to come down with Delhi belly type things, and the food hygiene is often quite obviously lacking. In the departure lounge at the airport there was a massive group of really green, half dead, looking Brits. I get talking to them, about 100 of them had come down sick, all stayed in the same hotel. They were all agreed, it was the meat dishes from the Monday evening meal (or whatever day it was). They said they were lukewarm and had been standing out for hours. Sounded sound enough grounds for me. Meat dishes do have to be kept warm at a hot enough temp or the bacteria grow like wildfire. But one young girl came up to me and said "I am a vegetarian and I came down sick on the same day as the rest of them, so it wasn't the meat dish"

With western colleagues in Bangkok, 5 of us, ate most meals together, all 5 of u sick as pigs for 48 hrs. The other 4 blamed without a doubt the sushi we had for lunch. But I don't eat fish, or shell fish as I'm allergic. So that couldn't have been it. But to this day none of them will touch sushi and still maintain it was the sushi. It really couldn't have been.

[Ralfredo]

if I remember correctly, the problem started right after the meal, with nausea, malaise,
and finally I vomited everything back and follows with diarrhea one/two days.

If the nausea started right after the mean then it almost certainly wasn't the burger that caused it. It takes time for the body to process and get ill off of bacteria. The most common forms of food poisoning take 24-48 hours to start showing symptoms. Even the least common of the main strains of bacteria that cause food positing still takes about 6 hours.

According to Wikipedia the incubation period can be anything from an hour to several years so I guess it's hard to tell if it was the burger or not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foodborne ... ion_period

[uncle tom]

According to Wikipedia the incubation period can be anything from an hour to several years so I guess it's hard to tell if it was the burger or not.

Which tells you pretty much nothing!

I don't know if its the bacteria itself or the toxins the bacteria produce, but my inner workings are usually pretty quick to spot an unwelcome visitor..

[caller]

When you consider the vast number of burgers McD or BK must sell in Hua Hin alone, it's amazing to think that a few visitors knocking back bellyful's of alcohol, dodgy ice, full brekkies, snacks et al, can all authoritatively state it was the burger that did it!

[uncle tom]

When you consider the vast number of burgers McD or BK must sell in Hua Hin alone, it's amazing to think that a few visitors knocking back bellyful's of alcohol, dodgy ice, full brekkies, snacks et al, can all authoritatively state it was the burger that did it!

While some people might blame the wrong culprit from time to time, I'd wager that most of the time people identify the correct source.

Moreover, a lot of tourists would assume that McD or BK was a safe source and seek to identify an alternative villain.

And whether its the meat, the salad or the mayo, these places are spoiling people's holidays and using up a lot of toilet paper..

[MDMK]

And whether its the meat, the salad or the mayo, these places are spoiling people's holidays and using up a lot of toilet paper..

No, because that would be to assume that the burger chains are definitely where the problem lies. And I know you believe they are, but many of us are doubtful.

[caller]

I actually put it to the test earlier. At 15.15, I had a Double cheeseburger, fries and coke zero with no ice, at BK in Bluport. So far, so good.

[huahin4ever]

I agree that people tend to blame McD and BK and such establishments to quick when they come down with diarrhea. I do not frequent those establishments very often, but during a year I probably eat food from BK and McD maybe 30 times. Delivery and in store eating altogether. I have never became sick so far. But my stomach is made of iron and I very rarely get stomach problems.

[HHTel]

Wikipedia states hours (as in the plural) rather than an hour as someone stated. It also goes on to say that anything under 6 hours is more likely to be a toxin or chemical rather than live bacteria.
The most common cause is the PERSON who handles and prepares the food.

As everyone knows, anyone can add to Wiki. I'd rather believe a medical practitioner.

McD, I'm sure is not the 'evil distributor of food'. I would guess that their hygiene is far better than most. Restaurants can't always guarantee the individual followed the rules.

Let's lay off McD as blaming them is based on zero evidence.

[J.J.B.]

The gastrointestinal tract is effectively an external-facing tube running down our body from our mouth to our anus. Anything that wants to get from this outside tube to inside our bodies needs to be digested, with strong stomach acids and enzymes, broken down into small molecules and then transported across cell membranes—it’s a very complex process. For liquids, it can take just a few minutes and for solid foods, especially proteins such as meat, it can take hours. Some fibrous foods, such as cellulose and lignin, are not broken down at all and pass through the entire gut unchanged; sweetcorn, for example.

Bacteria are small, single-cell small, so assuming they are not killed (denatured is the technical term) by the stomach acid, or digested by the stomach and small intestinal enzymes, they can cross the gut membrane, which is really thin, and enter the bloodstream. More commonly, capable bacteria would remain in the stomach or small intestine, multiply and do what bacteria do: produce toxins. These toxins are also known as antibiotics. Our gut already includes billions of bacteria that are symbiotic, living in harmony with our bodies and they help maintain a kind of status-quo in the microscopic world of our digestive tract.

It doesn't take a huge amount of change in the gut to upset the natural order of things. Anyone who has had a course of antibiotics, especially macrolides such as erythromicin, know that they can cause stomach upset because they destabilise the bacteria in the gut. It’s highly unlikely to be a new strain of bacteria that’s taken hold, immune to our natural gut flora’s toxins and our bodies’ other defences, and even less likely within just a couple of hours following introduction. Really virulent bacteria with truly potent toxins include E. coli, C. difficile, C. botulinum, S. typhi and V. cholerae to name a few. If you had one of these infections, you’d know about it and so would many other people. You’d likely be hospitalised and a confirmed source would affect far more people than just you, plus it wouldn’t be restricted to falangs, locals would be knocked down too, probably more so due to generally poorer healthcare and childhood immunisation programs.

If you get an upset stomach soon after eating at a western-style restaurant, it’s more likely to be caused by a liquid agent—based on apparent speed of onset—and something that is either destabilising the natural flora in your gut, if it lasts a few days, or irritating the sensitive gut lining if it only lasts a few hours. It’s most likely a cleaning, antibacterial or sanitising product, used to excess or inappropriately getting into your food because of misplaced hygeine practices.

There are numerous posts here about septic tanks and how the bacteria within them are negatively impacted by bleach and other antibacterial products; our guts operate on a similar principle. On so many levels, we’re all just full of shit.

[joelle]

what a lot of people don't truly know is the harmful effects of the Sun and a lot of times put their illness down to food poisoning, many don't bother to protect themselves, to wear a hat, they also ride scooters half naked and so on
sometimes it only takes a few minutes and bam sun stroke, happen to me occasionally when I could not be bothered to put a hat on and standing in the sun looking at this or that for a short time or can happen riding a scooter with a helmet on but the back of the neck unprotected
you don't have to lay on the beach to get a sunstroke !
all the same symptoms nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea etc.., fortunately it does not happen every time, but when it does mostly it is not food poisoning