Holiday from hell: How eating Pad Thai from food court in Thailand left Aussie couple with debilitating illness

[marcusarelus]

7 minutes ago, Sonhia said:

Not so long ago, I had to seek medical advise plus treatment from a Thai hospital which was a waste of time and money! By chance, I met a Doctor from Vietnam. After telling him my signs and symtoms, he advised me that I maybe suffering from the early stages of bowl cancer, so I rushed back to my homeland to undergo tests. Thankfully, I was given the all clear. The prognosis was bacterial infection cause by contaminated food/s comsumed in Thailand.

 

When it comes to hygine, most sellers of food products within Thailand seem to turn a blind eye.  Word of warning, be very careful of iced water! Where did the water orignate from?

 

Paradise... 

Should not make up stories.  Every Thai hospital would have loaded up with antibiotics that would have cured any bacterial infection.   

[KKr]

sounds like a load of Bu..ocks to me.
Any Parasitologist would have treated them immediately and properly.
Very strange that two years after, they blame the Thai food, instead of looking for ways to get the physicians that refused to treat them barred.
The Health system were they were allegedly seeking for help, seems to be in need of a big overhaul, if this were all true.

Having said that, maybe they are just looking for a boost in the clicks on their online business that they were apparently to weak to keep up.

[The Theory]

Pad Thai is a cooked food, unless the parasite eggs existed in raw vegetables that are available for Pad Thai customers.

[Fred white]

on another news site it was an american couple no kids involved and the woman looked a whole lot better

[MortyOslo]

Not likely that the Phad Thai infected them...

How to get infected :

1. Accidentally swallowing pinworm eggs (which might protect this fragile parasite) or the eggs of other parasites.

2. Swallowing something, such as water or food, or touching (and bringing your fingers to your mouth) something contaminated with stool from someone infected with D.fragilis How to Is it contageous ?   Environmental sources of infection are also unlikely because evidence suggests D.fragilis is transmitted via the fecal-oral route by direct transmission, and although the trophozoites do not seem to last long in the environment after being excreted, the organism is still highly transmissible and contagious

[KKr]

18 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

Absolute tripe. I think these poor people go to great lengths and the hygiene is perfectly fine. I'm never sick.

 

same here, eating most any local food and love street food.
including water and ice from "very quick and casual very much" restaurants, at sit down street stalls, or from fresh juice vendors.

only thing I avoid is sashimi and sushi on street stalls, but that seems common sense to me and is not about Thai food.

Edited July 8, 2019 by KKr

[KKr]

2 minutes ago, FredGallaher said:

Guys. I think we've been trolled on this. It's a bunch of BS. 

only thing missing is the link to the victims' website ????

 

Edited July 8, 2019 by KKr

[aspenbkk]

i had a similiar experience in pattaya 2 years ago i ate in a clean hotel diner place in soi buakhoa i went to the toilet washed my hands the chef came out the toilet no washing of hands and back cooking and next day food poisoning i was ill for a week . Then when i returned to the uk i went to the doctor had a blood test and same day was told to get up to the surgery again as i had that bacteria and parasite explained to me by the doctor and told very common in thailand to get it . I was put on Penicillin for 10 days to kill it but im still wary of eating in many places there now due to food poisoning .

[Pattayabeerbacon]

22 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

Absolute tripe. I think these poor people go to great lengths and the hygiene is perfectly fine. I'm never sick.

 

When I eat in the street I always drink the iced water. You don't know what the hell you're talking about. Perfectly fine.

 

Bangkok water out of the tap. No problems.

 

Routinely purchase discounted meat at Max Value 50% off. You know it's been sitting. Milk from Big C. Last day of expiration. Crack it open a week later. Takes a week for wife to finish it. Zero problems.

 

Another falang that can't handle Thailand on its own terms.

the real question is why you cannot afford the 1 baht reverse ozmosis water???

Edited July 8, 2019 by Pattayabeerbacon

[overherebc]

Giardia can cause similar problems.

Eat out, get the runs, and take Imodium etc and you feel ok for a few days then it kicks in again.

After 2 or 3 times you should realise that somethings wrong.

The biggest pain is when you get your poo checked and they know it's giardia you can't indulge in the amber neck oil etc.

Seems it can even survive being frozen for a while and that's one of the reasons I never have ice in my drinks.

I was travelling between Korea and Thailand regularly when I got it so I can't say where I picked it up.

Even after you've got rid of it it takes quite a while for your intestines to get 'back on track' shall we say.

[Ebumbu]

It's their fault. They ordered the Pad Die. 

[brianj1964]

4 hours ago, AlfonsV said:

First I came and now I stay in Thailand thus I have food experience of 35 years. During this period I had food poisening 4 times, each time 1 day, i.e. about once in a decade. Once I got lamblya because a young dog succeeded to lick my lips, but this was an easy diagnosis and treatment. However I have to say that I always ate vegetarian and during the last about 6 years vegan. Meat and seafood in hot climate is more dangerous than at home anyway. 

Did eating vegetarian give you early stage dementia? You posted the whole thing twice, once on page 6 then again on page 7

Edited July 8, 2019 by brianj1964

[Baerboxer]

7 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

I'll tell you what, you're not wrong. Twice now I've got food poisoning and on both occasions it was on Emirates travelling first ????

 

I would of thought a pad thai was fairly safe as it's cooked in hot oil which would probably kill most of the bacteria.

 

 

 

Worst case of food poisoning I ever had was from Singapore Airlines Business class. Had to have injection and medication at Changi airport before catching my connecting flight - to which I was wheeled out in a wheel chair.

 

I would suggest there is absolutely no way on earth that these people or their doctors can possibly know which dish they ate, or where, it was that contained the parasite. Seems more a case of them jumping to a conclusion in order to blame something/someone. Unlucky, but it can happen to anyone anywhere.

 

[Humpy]

Which food court, where??

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

Coming from a 1st world country with regulations, inspections and heavy fines for those that breach those health regulations if caught, they can also be shut down, there is nothing like that here in Thailand and I have travelled all over the world, never been sick from food in my life, as for here, well, been on the drip a few too many times, so I have learned to be VERY selective, and would be "one of those individuals who seem to have any experience in doing so".  

 

For the record, not a Thai basher, just stating my experiences here.

If that first world country you are referring to is Australia, it averages about 5 million cases of food poisoning a year. Pretty high for a population of 23 million people.

A former GF, who co-owned a restaurant in Canada, said people would never eat in any restaurant if they saw what went on in the kitchen.

I've travelled all over the world too. Been sick from food poisoning once here in ten years, a frozen meal.

Having said that, I am rather watchful. I don't eat food that is not cooked in front of me in a food court. I go to restaurants and street stalls that have a lot of customers. I regard ice in beer as an abomination. I only drink water I have boiled myself.

Fussbudgets like myself rarely have problems. It's the careless ones who get themselves in doo-doo.

 

[steven100]

It wasn't the pad thai that caused the fatigue ….  it was all the banging bom bom and piss drinking sessions they had.

[steven100]

11 minutes ago, Humpy said:

Which food court, where??

just down from your place ….

[potless]

5 hours ago, legend49 said:

Agree in the main first symptoms about 6 hours so you can identify which meal. ! hour is poppycock.

I had a google about it. Chicken seems to be the worst offender. A variety of bugs. Salmonella is one of the quickest I think but one website says up to 72 hours for 1 particular bug. Some years back I read that chicken should not be washed. Apparently the bugs can be carried through the air via water spray and end up on the surrounding area. Keep any ready prepared salad well away. Boring i know but maybe helps someone.

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

If it was bacteria yes but a parasite no. A parasite takes time to establish itself while bacteria multiply extremely fast. You can get infected by a parasite today and only see effects in a year or more.

Pretty easy to narrow down the meal that starts an episode of food poisoning.....

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

Sent from my SM-A730F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

You cannot pinpoint a parasite infection to one dish. Fake news and a fake claim. If you get food poisoning you get sick quickly but a parasite dont make you sick immediately. If they ate sushi or under cooked meat or imported fresh fruit or veggies inside Oz they could have contracted it there.

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[oslooskar]

8 hours ago, fforest1 said:

Maybe it was airline food that did them in....

That’s a very strong possibility. In November 2014 about 300 passengers on a cruise liner, including myself, came down with food poisoning.

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

This is a parasite not a bacteria and the time untill you get ill is not hours or days but months or years.

It can take 24 to 48 hours to manifest, sometimes longer. Depends on the bug.

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[potless]

6 minutes ago, SOUTHERNSTAR said:

This is a parasite not a bacteria and the time untill you get ill is not hours or days but months or years.

Thanks. Though my original post some 7 hours ago was a reply to a post that claimed food poisoning occurs in around an hour of eating. Not strictly related to the original story I know.

[TKDfella]

8 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

I'll tell you what, you're not wrong. Twice now I've got food poisoning and on both occasions it was on Emirates travelling first ????

 

I would of thought a pad thai was fairly safe as it's cooked in hot oil which would probably kill most of the bacteria.

 

 

Look at the name, it has the term '...amoeba...' Amoeba are not bacteria and somewhere in the region of 10 times the size and have a more complicated life cycle. The one mentioned in the OP is common in intestines, affects some people and not others. Someone here more leaned than I in the clinical issues could give a better view of this parasite.

[Megascott]

IMHO, Fake. If you pay attention to the food recalls, much more people die from with E-coli and Salmonella back home in the States or Australia than here in Thailand.

 

Most Americans that go to Mexico eventually get what we call "Montezuma's revenge" which is a parasite in the Mexican water, doesn't affect everyone or most Mexicans, but if you got the runs and stomach cramps, blame it on that. I think similar to the parasite these Aussies got. The normal antibiotics and Nsaid for the pain is almost always prescribed, and the effects are short lived.

 

I have never had a parasite or food poisoning and I've lived in some shady places, including the USA, S. Korea, Turkey, Australia, Germany, UK, India and now Thailand.

 

I also suffer from Memory loss, occasional Diarrhea, occasional Constipation, General sluggishness and Memory loss. Seems normal since last I checked, since these are all symptoms of getting old.

Edited July 8, 2019 by Megascott
speelin errors

[Andrew65]

18 minutes ago, potless said:

I had a google about it. Chicken seems to be the worst offender. A variety of bugs. Salmonella is one of the quickest I think but one website says up to 72 hours for 1 particular bug. Some years back I read that chicken should not be washed. Apparently the bugs can be carried through the air via water spray and end up on the surrounding area. Keep any ready prepared salad well away. Boring i know but maybe helps someone.

Using the same cutlery, dishes etc for both cooked & raw meats is another no-no.

[JeffreyO]

I do know street food is not the cleanest, safest or, really, anything ideal for eating but c'mon, Phad Thai?  Except the meat and eggs there's nothing in there that could make you sick and if you contracted a rare illness from Phad Thai, shouldn't all the others that ate there contract the same illness?  If it was meat, was it still raw when they bit into it?  Did they notice and just say "Hey, honey, you keep eating".  

[9653]

8 hours ago, BobbyL said:

It is great how two years later they can specifically say it was the Pad Thai. Did they keep their stools after that meal as evidence?

absolutely kept the stools, both of them, or all 4 of them

[SPREX]

it is a Dientamoeba fragilis  !!!!! 

 

Refer to medical research 

 Please check what these people are saying by accusing Thai food

[brianj1964]

2 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

Like I said, I only eat at places I have eaten before, whether it's in my travels to Udon Thani, Sakon Nakhon, Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Krabi etc etc, and unless the wife gives the nod to eat at a new place, you can forget it.

 

I won't eat food prepared by Thai's if I can avoid it, i.e. unless they have been trained overseas whether they have worked in Italy or Germany and the like.

 

Thai workers here do not give a rats about hygiene, an example: we selected a place to eat at a shopping plaza, and I said to the Mrs grab a seat, I am going to the toilet, when I finished my leak, I washed my hands as I usually do, then this guy comes out of the cubical and walks off, doesn't wash his hands, as I sat in the restaurant I said to my wife, lets go, we are not ordering here and stood up to leave, she said why as this lady came to take our order, I said that guy who is in the kitchen just came out of the same toilet as me and didn't wash his hands after a crap, the lady heard my comment, whether she understood English or not is another matter, but my wife told her we changed our mind as my husband saw one of the guys in the kitchen in the toilet who left after doing a number 2 and didn't wash his hands and we left. Now I will ask you this, do you think she would give a rats, probably thought to herself, another fussy farang.

 

Coming from a 1st world country with regulations, inspections and heavy fines for those that breach those health regulations if caught, they can also be shut down, there is nothing like that here in Thailand and I have travelled all over the world, never been sick from food in my life, as for here, well, been on the drip a few too many times, so I have learned to be VERY selective, and would be "one of those individuals who seem to have any experience in doing so".  

 

For the record, not a Thai basher, just stating my experiences here.

So how would you know if the Thai chefs that cook for you have been trained in Europe?

slate Thai chefs and Thai restaurants that you haven't eaten in and then say you are not Thai bashing, hilarious,