Wanted: Someone Who Has Had A Food-borne Illness And Is Willing To Share Lessons Learned With Reader’s Digest Asia

[Dinna Dayao]

Hello, folks. May I request your assistance?

I am a Manila-based freelance writer-editor-photographer who's working on an article on food safety for Reader’s Digest Asia. It will focus on food-borne illnesses in Asia and how they can be avoided. And I need to interview someone who:

1) has had a food-borne illness (that is, an upset stomach due to microorganisms such as Campylobacter, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella, Norovirus, or Vibrio bacteria) and

2) is willing to share the lessons he or she has learned from the experience.

There has to be laboratory confirmation that the bum tummy resulted from any of the above food bugs.

Would you know of anyone who fits the above description? If so, please let me know.

I’ll be grateful for your help in promoting food safety in Asia.

Thanks and regards,

:-) Dinna Dayao

[fxm88]

Sorry, no food-bourne illnesses here... but I got some great Humor in Uniform stories I could share. Do you still pay $100-$300 for that kind of thing?

[dash]

FYI but I am sure you will already know

It is more likely that someone had a food intoxication by a heat stable toxin from Staph.aureus than a bacterial probleme and Gardia would also be more likely than what you are asking for.

And before taking a sample for lab screening would be a polypragmatic therapy.

[londonthai]

do readers of 'readers digest' have enough guts to read such stories?

I have never read 'riders digest' but have always though that all articles there are about ufo & miracles fed by the american security services to the dumb folk to make them complete zombies.

anyhow, your question should be in the health forum and not the thai food forum - would you be implying in your article that thai food is contaminated with all those bacterias and what people should really eat is hamburger and chicken nuggets made in the us of a and sold through mcSh*t?

Edited January 17, 2007 by londonthai

[sceadugenga]

do readers of 'readers digest' have enough guts to read such stories?

I have never read 'riders digest' but have always though that all articles there are about ufo & miracles fed by the american security services to the dumb folk to make them complete zombies.

anyhow, your question should be in the health forum and not the thai food forum - would you be implying in your article that thai food is contaminated with all those bacterias and what people should really eat is hamburger and chicken nuggets made in the us of a and sold through mcSh*t?

Nice point LT

[cathyy]

And if you DO get something -I have, from water, not food- you're going to treat it yourself. You just buy the antibiotic you or the pharmacist thinks you need OTC. I suspect most people here will need to have a serious case of cholera (vibrio) or amoebic dysentery before they'll see a doctor.

Food-borne illness actually seems to me to be less common here than in the US. The meat bought from open markets here is infinitely cleaner than the feces-contaminated meat from meat processing facilities in the US. In an open market that meat was a living animal a couple hours ago. The guy who killed it was careful when he cleaned it to not get feces smeared all over. The Dept. of Agriculture and FDA just don't have the funding and staffing to enforce the puny laws that do exist to protect the consumer.

If I buy my meat at a supermarket here, I can get pork guaranteed to be free of salmonella and trichinosis, chicken guaranteed to be free of salmonella and campylobacter. I can't do that in the US. I can thaw frozen meat on the kitchen counter here, like you could in the US 25 years ago. (Mind you, I don't, but I could) Why can't you do that with meat processed in the US these days? It's too contaminated before it ever makes it to your kitchen, that's why.

[November Rain]

And if you DO get something -I have, from water, not food- you're going to treat it yourself. You just buy the antibiotic you or the pharmacist thinks you need OTC. I suspect most people here will need to have a serious case of cholera (vibrio) or amoebic dysentery before they'll see a doctor.

Agree 100% Cathyy,

I've had food poisoning twice, once from ice & once (I think) from a salad garnish (you know the lettuce leaf & 2 bits of tomato they put for decoration). Both times I treated it myself, OTC medicine, rest & fluids. For a young, healthy adult that's pretty much what a doctor would tell you anyway. Lessons learned? Don't know - don't eat salad garnishes?!?

[cathyy]

Lessons learned? Don't know - don't eat salad garnishes?!?

I'm sure the OP is looking for the platitudes spouted in travel brochures about not eating unpeeled fruit or veggies, and washing all fruit and veggies yourself.

I have a neighbor who thinks he has Irritable Bowel or some such. What he has is a wife who leaves food out for hours and then feeds it to him. I don't eat there when invited. It's a shame because otherwise she's a fair cook.

That does seem to be a common failing here, though. People see nothing wrong with grocery shopping, buying meat and dairy products, and then spending a couple more hours doing other stuff before they head home to refrigerate the food.

[Jet Gorgon]

I've had my share of eat and soon evacuate. I never take antibiotics for that (rarely take antibiotics for anything; saving up for a day I might really need them). Just lots of water, electrolytes and if it lingers, OTC Bacterium (think that's the right name).

I buy all my meat and produce at the market and never had tainted food once. If I eat out and something tastes a bit iffy, I lose my appetite immediately. Tend to stay away from all-day curry stalls, but the others have been OK.

[lomatopo]

Food-borne illness actually seems to me to be less common here than in the US.

Tell that to these folks...

Foreign health experts look into outbreak of botulism

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has dispatched experts to investigate food poisoning in Nan province after finding the bacteria causing the outbreak is the same strain used to make biological weapons, the Disease Control Department said yesterday.

Almost 170 villagers from Ban Luang district were admitted to the provincial hospital last week after eating tinned bamboo shoots and developing botulism, a form of food poisoning caused by the clostridium botulinum bacteria.

Seventy-seven patients are being treated in the hospital, and 39 of them are in a coma.

The US health experts were closely monitoring the patients' conditions, Disease Control Department chief Thawat Sundracharn said at a press conference yesterday.

"The CDC is eager to study the ... outbreak in order to strengthen the US preparedness for a biological weapons attack," said Dr Thawat.

Clostridium botulinum bacteria, anthrax and smallpox were the three major components of biological weapons at the moment, he added.

The US infectious disease experts had brought with them 50 doses of anti-toxin serum to try to cure the patients. Britain and Canada had also donated 30 doses of the serum to Nan hospital.

However, he said, the ministry would acquire additional serum from Japan to prepare for any fresh outbreak.

Thailand did not stockpile the serum because usually the number of cases per year was small, Dr Thawat said, adding that the large number in the Nan outbreak was unprecedented.

Dr Thawat said people could develop symptoms of botulism within 12-36 hours of contact with the bacteria. Symptoms include blurred vision, a dry mouth, nausea, vomiting and muscle weakness leading to limb paralysis. In serious cases, the patient would suffer respiratory system failure, a major cause of death among patients with botulism.

A person could contact the disease through a wound or by eating contaminated food.

The department had so far destroyed all 70 locally-produced tins of bamboo shoots to prevent the disease spreading further, said Dr Thawat. A team of medics investigating the disease outbreak suspected that the villagers' unhygienic production of tinned bamboo shoots was the cause of the food poisoning.

Source: Bangkok Post - 21 Mar 2006

There's no question that food-borne illness is a major problem here, just look at the Hep A and E infection rates for Thais! I love seeing that raw meat hanging by the roadside on 37 degree heat. I also love it when it rains, and then all the vehicles kick up a nice mist off the street that settles everywhere. Extra seasoning.

I eat street food (carts, sidewalk restaurants, soi kitchens) in Bangkok for ~ 25 meals per month. I get sick about once every 75 meals. Sickness for me is mild diarrhea lasting one to six hours.

There are several fried chicken carts on my soi. I've eaten from these carts many times. They usually have a selection of legs and wings that have been cooked. Just today I noticed, for the first time, a customer examining many legs by picking them up, and then putting them down again!