Tummy bugs on holiday UPDATE Shigella post 57

We used to vacation a lot in Mexico (it's easy for us Canadians to get there).

What you are forgetting is tomatoes, fruits, salad items, are all grown locally. No matter how much you wash them, you can't kill the bacteria in them. They are grown locally using local water.

The DR has a horrible reputation for people getting sick. The hygiene is not great. Doesn't matter if it's 5 or 2*.

Been to Cancun twice, 5* both times. Both times by day 4 sicker than a dog that basically lasted until the flight home. PV? Three times, sick once.

Jamaica? Stayed at Sandals. No problems.

Morocco? Three days and I was done. Hospitalized in Spain with a bacterial infection. IV antibiotics, the whole shebang. Lost 25lbs in less than a weeks.

Hand sanitizer is horrible. Soap and water is the way to go. I have to use hand sanitizer at work. People don't use it properly. Wiping it around your hands isn't the way to use it. You have to rub it in and massage it into the nailbeds, etc. All it's done is increase the prevalence of superbugs.

There was an article in our local paper about a sickness bug and the main carrier had been human faeces. People not washing their hands after toilet.

Given the diagnosis is Shigella - which causes dysentry - whilst its possibly from food - it usually would only come from something someone has handled that is uncooked. So for example a slice of cheese. Its possible.

More likely that this is from the shower water/swimming pool or some other source of water. This is the usual transmission. Especially in a hotel. Someone has it - gets into the swimming pool before they are fully better and MOST of these AI hotels don't use enough chlorine to kill off bacteria quickly enough. Hence something like this spreads very rapidly. It also could have been from ice - a dirty glass - brushing teeth - virtually anything. But usually its water based. It can come from food, but would need handling of uncooked food and that isn't impossible - but if it was hotel prep at fault - you'd expect that would be major and likely have resulted in many many outbreaks over the years. But it could just be bad luck.

I should note that my wife and I once went to Egypt where half the hotel came down with dysentry - the other half completely unaffected. Some people were so bad they had to be given drips in their room or taken to hospital. My wife was bad for a week - but thankfully not at the worst level, whilst I had no issue at all. It turned out after investigation to have been from tap water in the rooms - brushing teeth. We all did this, but half survived without symptom - conclusion being either half got really lucky - OR we'd already been exposed previously in life to that Shigella bacteria. It is possible that the kids had immunity - from nursery etc....