Repetadly Ill, What Is Wrong?

[sabaijai]

hello folks. I have been in Thai for 6 months, and I normaly are careful with my food, and before I moved, I had thaifood, in Norway, every day. Spicy as ######, too.

lived in BKK 2 years ago, no problem before, been here many times. 

After some weeks in TH, I got ill, running to toilet. This repeat aprox every month, 3 - 4 weeks between them,

I been to hospital, got pills, every time, get well, but then its on again.     

Anybody heard about similar cases?  what can it bee? some food I simply should NOT eat, no more clues,....    Could happen I want to move back, I dont like to poo...                  

HELP.

I'm no doctor, so you should get checked out, but your symptoms sound very much like amoebiasis or amoebic dysentery. Immodium will have little or no effect on amoebic dysentery, and it won't go away on its own. There's only one way to kill the amoebas - which feed on your lower intestine and multiply - and that's to take a medicine called metronidazole. This medicine is very effective and symptoms begin subsiding within a few hours of taking it, typically. I've contracted amoebas three times, once each in India, Indonesia and Burma. It's not all that common in Thailand, but it does crop up here and there.

It can be very debilitating if left untreated. More info:

Amoebiasis

What pills is the hosptial giving you? Amoebas are often misdiagnosed in Thailand (and just about every other country too), and often other antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin are prescribed, with no results.

[wilko]

the first thing I would look at is my water supply, and how I use it...

Is it mains or well or worse still delivered in a tanker?

Whichever way think about the following...

Don't drink it, do not even clean your teeth with tap water.

Do not wash your veggies with it.

boiling can kill most bacteria but not reduce toxins and chemicals, so don't make tea with it.

Everybody gets the runs sometimes, even back in the UK, touch wood I've not had anything more than 24 hours here in Thailand in 10 years. I do not have a "cast-iron" stomach and I do eat street food, but I'm very cautious with the water.

I do use ice, an bottled water here

Many people when they get food poisoning blame the last meal they had. In fact it can take 2 to 3 days for some bacteria to produce enough toxins to make you ill. So if you are sick, try and think back a few days and rememeber what you have eaten or drunk over that period. it might help you re infect yourself.

Finally let me tell you about my 2 friends on Samui. Every evening the 3 of us would go and eat together. One evening we met and I asked where we were going to eat...they looked sheepish and said they had already eaten at MacDonalds. They knew I hated the place so went without me. The following 3 days they both had the most horrible runs - I was fine!

Eat western food here and die!

Edited July 22, 2005 by wilko

[thomasjojo]

yo! got the answer mates..

Giardia lamblia

(giardiasis)

http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~parasite/giardia.html

sits in the smal intestine. My doctor gave me antibiotics, and I read in an online doctor in my home country that it often is necessary with a repeating medical treatment after a week. So I will do. No alcohol when I take this.

The web in Norway, doktoronline.no, also describe the symptoms just as I had them.

I always clean my teeth in the tap, but thats over. never more. My wife dothat too, and she had this problem once. Cured by antibiotics.

Its a ###### of a life, but now I will be even more careful about water, and salads. But hey! The som tam, spicy food I can eat, hehe,, thats so good to know..

the F#### :

PS: McDonald is not good anywhere on the clode, avoid them!!

yes, I do suspect the MC Donalds for this...

Never ever MCDonald again

Edited July 26, 2005 by [email protected]

[wilko]

yo! got the answer mates..

Giardia lamblia

(giardiasis)

Glad to hear you're on the mend!

[sabaijai]

Giardia, that would have been my second guess after amoebas. The symptoms are somewhat similar, though giardia is usually accompanied by extremely foul-smelling flatulence (sometimes burping, too), which you didn't mention.

In any case the antibiotic of choice for both is the same, metronidazole. I assume that's what you were prescribed?

There's a lot of crossover, symptoms-wise, between amoebiasis than giardia, the main difference being the extreme flatulence with the latter. The The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy describes both here: parasitic infections according to Merck Merck is searchable by symptom, disease name or treatment, pretty useful when you don't have immediate access to reliable medical care.