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Tuesday, August 30, 2005
BEWARE OF SMALL RESTAURANTS, AND WASH YOUR HANDS WITH SOAP
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Coming from an underdeveloped country - India, and being a medical doctor, I had all the information that diarrhea (infective) is a third-world disease. I mean that it is far more prevalent in third-world than in U.S. and other developed nations. But data can be misleading. Probability may be less but possibility is there!
When my brother who was coming back to U.S. after visiting India asked me if he should get me 'metronidazole' tablets, I told him haughtily not to worry about diarrhea in the U.S. Ironically, I had to 'pay' for that statement. (Most drugs are 50 times expensive in U.S. than in India.)
A few days back, I dined at a small Chinese restaurant and now I caught diarrhea. (There is an incubation period for every infection). In India, infective diarrhea is mostly Amebiasis while it is Giardiasis in the U.S.. Both are transmitted by fecal-oral route, which means the bugs that are in the feces of an infected person contaminate food and water and infect anyone who ingests them. Food-handlers transmit the disease to much more people than others because of their profession. When a person with diarrhea goes to toilet and washes his hands without using soap, the organisms stick to the hands, however hard one may wash - if one doesn't use soap. And when he handles food or water, or touches fomites such as door-knobs, taps, flush-buttons or food containers, those bugs are transferred to them. Whoever ingests the contaminated food/water gets infected. Whoever contacts the fomites, 'eats' those bugs when he takes food. Also there is a state called 'carrier'. The carriers don't have symptomatic diarrhea but harbour diarrhea causing organisms and transmit them.
Hand-washing with soap is the solution. When we wash our hands with soap, the micelles formed by the soap wash away all the dirt including microbes. Unfortunately, most people do not know this and fail to wash their hands with soap, spreading diarrhea all around. If you make it a habit to wash hands thoroughly with soap, after using toilet and before meals as well, you don't get those microbes from fomites. But this doesn't solve everything.
But if you have meals, for example, in small family owned restaurants, despite you washing hands with soap, you can catch diarrhea from the food you eat and the water you drink. For this, the only solution is not to go to small, cheap restaurants. You might visit larger restaurants though there can be some risk. The safest bets are food chains like Pizza Hut, Subway, KFC, Taco Bell, etc. The management here sees that hygiene is maintained in every franchise. But no restaurant is guaranteed.
[What the government can do to prevent diarrhea from food handlers is this: It should mandate all food-handlers to take a course (e.g. at home video) on hygiene and conduct a certification exam. It should also make it mandatory for all food-handlers to undergo monthly stool examination for diarrhea-causing and other microbes.]
The bottomline point is, 'Wash hands thoroughly with soap after using toilet and before meals. And avoid dining at small restaurants.'
Health is Wealth! ¶ 6:01 PM 0 comments
Coming from an underdeveloped country - India, and being a medical doctor, I had all the information that diarrhea (infective) is a third-world disease. I mean that it is far more prevalent in third-world than in U.S. and other developed nations. But data can be misleading. Probability may be less but possibility is there!
When my brother who was coming back to U.S. after visiting India asked me if he should get me 'metronidazole' tablets, I told him haughtily not to worry about diarrhea in the U.S. Ironically, I had to 'pay' for that statement. (Most drugs are 50 times expensive in U.S. than in India.)
A few days back, I dined at a small Chinese restaurant and now I caught diarrhea. (There is an incubation period for every infection). In India, infective diarrhea is mostly Amebiasis while it is Giardiasis in the U.S.. Both are transmitted by fecal-oral route, which means the bugs that are in the feces of an infected person contaminate food and water and infect anyone who ingests them. Food-handlers transmit the disease to much more people than others because of their profession. When a person with diarrhea goes to toilet and washes his hands without using soap, the organisms stick to the hands, however hard one may wash - if one doesn't use soap. And when he handles food or water, or touches fomites such as door-knobs, taps, flush-buttons or food containers, those bugs are transferred to them. Whoever ingests the contaminated food/water gets infected. Whoever contacts the fomites, 'eats' those bugs when he takes food. Also there is a state called 'carrier'. The carriers don't have symptomatic diarrhea but harbour diarrhea causing organisms and transmit them.
Hand-washing with soap is the solution. When we wash our hands with soap, the micelles formed by the soap wash away all the dirt including microbes. Unfortunately, most people do not know this and fail to wash their hands with soap, spreading diarrhea all around. If you make it a habit to wash hands thoroughly with soap, after using toilet and before meals as well, you don't get those microbes from fomites. But this doesn't solve everything.
But if you have meals, for example, in small family owned restaurants, despite you washing hands with soap, you can catch diarrhea from the food you eat and the water you drink. For this, the only solution is not to go to small, cheap restaurants. You might visit larger restaurants though there can be some risk. The safest bets are food chains like Pizza Hut, Subway, KFC, Taco Bell, etc. The management here sees that hygiene is maintained in every franchise. But no restaurant is guaranteed.
[What the government can do to prevent diarrhea from food handlers is this: It should mandate all food-handlers to take a course (e.g. at home video) on hygiene and conduct a certification exam. It should also make it mandatory for all food-handlers to undergo monthly stool examination for diarrhea-causing and other microbes.]
The bottomline point is, 'Wash hands thoroughly with soap after using toilet and before meals. And avoid dining at small restaurants.'
Health is Wealth! ¶ 6:01 PM 0 comments