Mystery Death Of British Tourist Sparks E Coli Alarm In Thailand

[webfact]

Mystery tourist death sparks E coli alarm

By THE NATION

The Public Health Ministry is investigating the death of a 66-year-old British man at a hotel in the northeastern province of Udon Thani after developing severe diarrhoea for two days.

The health agency has taken samples from his body and sent them to Udon Thani Medical Science Centre for laboratory testing for the European strain of E coli.

The result is expected to be released in two days, the ministry's permanent secretary Dr Paijit Warachit said.

British native Daniel Forges arrived Thailand on June 5 and developed acute diarrhoea 12-13 days later .

"Preliminary results showed the cause of his death was not Escherichia coli O104 [the deadly European strain]," Pajit said.

"If this man was infected with E coli O104, his severe diarrhoea would have developed within 10 days of his arrival in Thailand," Paijit added.

Meanwhile, an investigator, Police Lieutenant Veerachon Khonthai, who had conducted the investigation into the death of Daniel, developed acute diarrhoea on Monday night after eating at a restaurant in Udon Thani.

He had contact with Daniel's personal documents, such as his passport, but frequently washed his hands and took medicinal drugs.

Doctors told him he might have been suffering from food poisoning. If a victim of the new strain of E coli, he would have developed the symptoms three to four days after infection.

Udon Thani provincial public health office has placed people such as hotel staff under surveillance in case of infection by bacteria from the restaurant Veerachon visited.

To control the spread of E coli bacterium in Thailand, the Disease Control Department will meet today to evaluate the E coli situation and investigate measures to prevent the spread of disease around the country.

Good hygienic practices when cooking and eating are recommended to prevent the infection, Paijit said.

To date, 633,206 people are reported to have been stricken by digestive system disease. Of this number 583,501 fell ill from severe diarrhoea and 44,555 cases were suffering from food poisoning.

The infections were from bacterium such as shigella, vibrio parahaemolyticus, and a harmless E coli strain. The deadly E coli O104 strain has not been reported in Thailand.

-- The Nation 2011-06-22

[cloudhopper]

Yet another mystery death in LOS. RIP

[rkidlad]

All this talk of E-Coli being in Thailand might be a blessing in disguise. No longer will the authorities have to deal with foreign suicides or coincidences.

[animatic]

Dysentery is a long terms hazard of eating in Thailand. E coli no doubt is common in Thailand. The new strain is not and is worry some certainly. And the investigator getting it is also worrying... but maybe not as worrying as eating in this particular Udon restaurant.

[seriouseats]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

[asdecas]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

In general, yes, you would expect a sixty-six year old man to be more likely to have health issues that make him more susceptible to such bugs. It matters not a jot that you have had diarrhoea for years, though I suspect what you claim to have and what this unfortunate gentleman had are entirely different things.

[venturalaw]

. . . ."Meanwhile, an investigator, Police Lieutenant Veerachon Khonthai, who had conducted the investigation into the death of Daniel, developed acute diarrhoea on Monday night after eating at a restaurant in Udon Thani.". . .

Which restaurant?

[Richard Hall]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

You dehydrate very quickly, your body functions fail because of the lack of water, you die very quickly. Particularly, in very hot weather such as it is common in Thailand. The most essential substance for living is water and well, what do you lose in case of severe diarrhea? Live is simple and so is death although there is always a big fuss about it.

Edited June 22, 2011 by Richard Hall

[softgeorge]

Yet another mystery death in LOS. RIP

Another coincidence, case closed

[Gers1873]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

Lots of people appear to suffer from various forms of oral dysentery which tends not to kill. However acute diarrhea actually kills thousands of people worldwide on an annual basis. The moral in Thailand is watch where you eat ---- no matter how long you've been here -- hygiene does not appear a high prioroty in many markets/restaurants.

[drdoom6996]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

You have not had acute diarrhea. Acute means18 out of 24 hours you have severe cramps that immobilize you and only water comes out that end. Your body becomes dehydrated within 2 to 4 days. And if not treated properly by a doctor and fluids. you die.

[theanimaster]

Off-topic, but just to add answers to the question how you die from drippy-poop: it causes dehydration. And severe dehydration might lead to ketoacidosis, which is when the body starts burning up your fat, creating ketones. This occurs if malnutrition is involved as a result of dehydration. Ketones are bad for your body and are regularly expelled, but in the case of severe dehydration and malnutrition they aren't expelled quite as easily and a high amount of ketones in your blood can result in you passing out into a coma, and not too long after (if not immediately treated) -- dying.

Edited June 22, 2011 by theanimaster

[edko]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

In general, yes, you would expect a sixty-six year old man to be more likely to have health issues that make him more susceptible to such bugs. It matters not a jot that you have had diarrhoea for years, though I suspect what you claim to have and what this unfortunate gentleman had are entirely different things.

I have had frequent bouts of diarrhea since 1990 after having part of my intestine removed. Any food with animal fat or cooked in animal fat would set me off in 10 to 15 minutes of eating. I had it bad enough that for years I had to sit to pee for fear that I'd crap my pants (again). About 2 months ago, I tried a sample of a product, Kyo-Dophilus which has "3 specially cultured, human, not-dairy, heat-stable stomach acid resistant strains of beneficial bacteria. ...gives relief from the inconvenience caused by bad bacteria....use after a cycle of medication, when you travel, and everyday to boost immunity, promote healthy intestinal function and general well being." I bought a 90 day supply through Amazon for about $25 and have not had diarrhea since. I don't know if there would be a source in Thailand or if the company would deliver to Thailand - I think it would be worth a shot to try.

It is manufactured by Wakunaga of America Co., Ltd, 23501 Madero, Mission Viejo, CA 92691 U.S.A. http://www.kyolic.com/

[seriouseats]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

You have not had acute diarrhea. Acute means18 out of 24 hours you have severe cramps that immobilize you and only water comes out that end. Your body becomes dehydrated within 2 to 4 days. And if not treated properly by a doctor and fluids. you die.

Now you need a doctor to drink some electrolytes?

I havnt had real acute diarhea but before these last few months i had diahrhea 2-3x a day 1 day out of 3 in thailand.. never died still heahtly.. just hydrate properly.(i really cant help it how disgusting even good restaurants are in this country+their milk that i drink twice a day)

I have had over 10 to 15~ intense 3 days long food poisoning where i couldnt even walk for one of the days sometimes up to 3.

Some people are clearly too stupid to hydrate properly when they are sick.. well in fact more than 50% of the population is so unhealthy that they have no real idea if their body is hungry or thirsty.. They confuse each of them. Read up.

Definitely not blaming the guy, but people need to stop being such idiots.. Dying of diarrhea is most likely the hardest way to die when people are surviving cancers.

[SICHONSTEVE]

Yet another mystery death in LOS. RIP

Another coincidence, case closed

These RIP posts and suicide, coincidence etc: posts are just so irrelevant and boring it makes me want to puke!!!!

There is simply no substance, genuine heartfelt sincerity or justification with, or for them!!

Please write something interesting that has injected a bit of thought into what your take is on the matter than wish the family of the deceased your condolences and the like as they are NEVER going to read it and it's not as if you are a prime minister or king or anything expressing your sorrow to the nation, is it, so why do it???

[samjaidee]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

In medical parlance symptoms are often described in one of two ways; chronic or acute.

Chronic - (of an illness) Persisting for a long time or constantly recurring.

Acute - (of a disease or its symptoms) Of short duration but typically severe.

It sounds like you have chronic diarrhea not acute diarrhea.

You'll have to take my word for it but you'd know about it if you had acute diarrhea.

[jackcorbett]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

Lots of people appear to suffer from various forms of oral dysentery which tends not to kill. However acute diarrhea actually kills thousands of people worldwide on an annual basis. The moral in Thailand is watch where you eat ---- no matter how long you've been here -- hygiene does not appear a high prioroty in many markets/restaurants.

Years ago my now ex wife and I both got food poisoning in Cairo, Egypt. She got it while on the plane to Luxor where we were planning on visiting the Valley of the Kings and I got it around 12 hours later. We were so weak we could do nothing for several days, in my wife's case, not to even leave the room to go out to the pool area. What we got was dysentery, not diarrhea as both of us had no control over our bowels whatsoever. You'd just lie there shitting in your pants while lying in bed. The cure was antibiotics.

So where did we get it? From the Cairo Nile Hilton Hotel wondrous buffet where they had all these terrific salads and vichyousse soup made from leeks, onions, potatoes, cream etc. The way I understood it is flies were allowed to settle down on fruits and vegetables, meat etc in the market and to lay their eggs. And of course the Hilton Hotel got a lot of its food stock from the market. What surprises me is although I've had my share of diarrhea here in Thailand I've never had anything remotely close to being as debilitating as what I got in Egypt. And I've been living here for six years now.

[NanLaew]

Having said that, this victim arrived in LOS over two weeks ago but there's no indication of when he actually arrived in Udon. He may have eaten some dodgy German bean sprouts before he even got here.

[IMA_FARANG]

Dysentery is a long terms hazard of eating in Thailand. E coli no doubt is common in Thailand. The new strain is not and is worry some certainly. And the investigator getting it is also worrying... but maybe not as worrying as eating in this particular Udon restaurant.

----------------------------------

Quite possibly the source was the restaturant, but that can't simply be assumed to be true. The company I worked for in Turkey had an experience with more than 20 years ago. An area manager arrived in Turkey for a visit. He invideted 4 or 5 of the local managers to a meal in a Turkish restaurant. In the next few days all of the local managers became sick except for one, and the area manager did also. Everyone assumed the cause was the Turkish restaurant.

When the health authorites checked, they discovered it wan't the restaurant that was the cause afterall. The area manager had brought some German meat with im as a "special treat" for the local mangers, The only one that didn't become sick was the one local manager who didn't eat any of that German meat. What had apparently happened was the area manager had bought the meat in Germany before leaving, put it into his baggage wrapped but obviously not refrigerated. That's where the problem began.

Of course, this wan't the deadly strain of Salmonella, just some intestinal bacteria that caused a mild intestianl problem.

But it shows why you simply can't assume that the restaurant is at fault.

[indothai]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

Lots of people appear to suffer from various forms of oral dysentery which tends not to kill. However acute diarrhea actually kills thousands of people worldwide on an annual basis. The moral in Thailand is watch where you eat ---- no matter how long you've been here -- hygiene does not appear a high prioroty in many markets/restaurants.

Years ago my now ex wife and I both got food poisoning in Cairo, Egypt. She got it while on the plane to Luxor where we were planning on visiting the Valley of the Kings and I got it around 12 hours later. We were so weak we could do nothing for several days, in my wife's case, not to even leave the room to go out to the pool area. What we got was dysentery, not diarrhea as both of us had no control over our bowels whatsoever. You'd just lie there shitting in your pants while lying in bed. The cure was antibiotics.

So where did we get it? From the Cairo Nile Hilton Hotel wondrous buffet where they had all these terrific salads and vichyousse soup made from leeks, onions, potatoes, cream etc. The way I understood it is flies were allowed to settle down on fruits and vegetables, meat etc in the market and to lay their eggs. And of course the Hilton Hotel got a lot of its food stock from the market. What surprises me is although I've had my share of diarrhea here in Thailand I've never had anything remotely close to being as debilitating as what I got in Egypt. And I've been living here for six years now.

The kid doesn't know the definition of "acute diarrhea" and tried to relate it to his "common" problem. We've got a doctor in the midst.

Edited June 22, 2011 by indothai

[reason1]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

Having the Runs is not terminal.

You have never suspected you have a food allergy?

Clearly you are addicted to eating/drinking something your body wants to exhaust fast.

Me I avoided all wheat products for 30 years when hospitals could not identify the problem

I recently made a mistake cooking and found out my allergy is Baking Powder

[longtom]

I find it rather ridiculous how they are looking for the european E-coli everywhere but not care about all the mystery deaths in Chiang Mai/Krabi or the many food poisonings that probably happen every day here.

[IMA_FARANG]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

--------------------------------

Real acute diarrhea...if it is severe enough to lead to death...then usually the death is from severe dehydration caused by loss of water from the diarrhea.

Usually it is the children and the elderly which are most at risk. They often need hopital treatment to restore the body fluids.

But most diarrhea isn't that severe.

[normac44]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

Normally it is from the dehydration..lack of fluids which affects the kidneys and other organs.Plenty of fluids are necessary if you have acute diarrhea, meaning

electrolyte replacement and good clean water.

[metisdead]

An inflammatory post and reply to it have been removed.

[MILT]

Yet another mystery death in LOS. RIP

Another coincidence, case closed

These RIP posts and suicide, coincidence etc: posts are just so irrelevant and boring it makes me want to puke!!!!

There is simply no substance, genuine heartfelt sincerity or justification with, or for them!!

Please write something interesting that has injected a bit of thought into what your take is on the matter than wish the family of the deceased your condolences and the like as they are NEVER going to read it and it's not as if you are a prime minister or king or anything expressing your sorrow to the nation, is it, so why do it???

I agree 100% Every time I read this crap about coincidence's and the like I think these people have diarrhea of the brain and mouth.

[kek]

You'll have to take my word for it but you'd know about it if you had acute diarrhea.

There's nothing cute about diarrhea.

[animatic]

How do you die from acute diarrhea.. i've had it for years and it's never gone away. Those people are really weak or what?

It is not chronic diarrhea , as seems to be in your case,

but basically significant amounts of fluids draining in a short period of time, and often combined with a fluid uptake blockage, or inability to take or properly proccess fluids.

I got dysentery a few years back and ended up in hospital on a 2 liter IV with antibiotic, all day. I finally checked out after 6+ hours, against MD's orders, but I had started peeing again.

People have been dieing from dysentery for 1,000s of years mate.

Edited June 22, 2011 by animatic

[johncat1]

. . . ."Meanwhile, an investigator, Police Lieutenant Veerachon Khonthai, who had conducted the investigation into the death of Daniel, developed acute diarrhoea on Monday night after eating at a restaurant in Udon Thani.". . .

Which restaurant?

YES I am in Udon every weekend and would like to know which restaurant to stay away from !!!

Maybe it was roadside food which can be hanging around in the sun all day !! ?

[Briggsy]

Typical smokescreen tactics. E. Coli my arse, excuse the pun.