Best Posts in Thread: Suspected Water Contamination in Sibulan

And here is a link to the final word on the outbreak of the trots:

Diarrhea cases in Negros Oriental now under control: DOH

 

Let me start by telling of the time a similar thing happened to me a couple of years back. Problem is when blood gets into the diarrhea. The emergency room interns did not really want to admit me to hospital until I passed out from loss of blood. When I came to I had about 10 doctors around me. They admitted me, gave me a transfusion and treated it.

Diarrhea can be fatal and that is a REAL shitty deal.

 

I also flush with my foot. Actually, even a small amount of bacteria can affect us as it depends on the type of bacteria. E.coli itself consists of many STRAINS and they can vary from quite harmless (useful even) to lethal. The other issue is that once bacteria start growing in food, they may produce toxins and the amount of toxin may become very large over a period of time - so food we eat that was infected a while before may be loaded with toxins. Botulism is very dangerous in this way - incidentally, it can be found in honey and it is advised not to feed honey to children under 1 year of age.

Viruses are also a cause of food poisoning (e.g Norovirus) but they do not multiply or produce toxins in the food itself. However, they can be introduced to the food via faeces from a handler who did not wash their hands and it takes only 18 Norovirus particles to infect another person (yet BILLIONS are excreted in one person's faeces). I've had it and it is a terrible experience. If one infected person vomits in a room then it is likely most, if not all, present in that room will catch the disease.

Sleep well!

 

For those not fully aware of disease risks: Of course ingesting it means putting a large amount of potentially infected water inside the body. My wife says that rice cookers do boil the water (but I never eat any of the rice anyway). Washing dishes usually involves using soap and that should reduce the risk of pathogens remaining in large enough numbers (but I never put away wet, even moist, dishes and never use a drying cloth). Cleaning the teeth means using a relatively small amount of that water and spitting most of it out again (plus, the toothpaste may have some anti-bacterial effect depending on the product). Shaving has no risk of causing diarrhoea (unless you shave your tongue ) BUT people who have nicked their skin shaving have had serious blood infections. The risk of infection (taking away the effect of our own level of immunity) partially depends on the density of pathogens within the water and their types. E.coli is a 'marker' for faecal contamination but many other pathogens can seriously affect human health - and may be present. But I fully agree that if I knew there was a serious contamination of the water supply then I would stop using it altogether.

I do eat out but am always concerned that I have no control over the extent to which staff hand-wash after using the toilets (actually, the risks inside toilets due to people touching places, including door knobs, infected by other people who did NOT wash their hands, is another story!) and the general state of hygiene. As students are so badly educated here I have scant regard for how good standards of hygiene are.

As I said in another recent thread: It is a daily battle between us and them - some we win, some we lose.

 

And wash dishes? And if there is a helper or gf she likely cooks the rice with tap water. I don't think that gets to boiling temp. I brush my teeth and shave in tap water. It would be a PIA to do that with bottled water but I would if I was worried about contaminated water.

 

You are really spot on here, just tell us we can't avoid the bacteria, different types, the one from cr I fear most, staff in restaurants who don't wash their hands after visit cr can make you seriously sick and for sure have done that many times. I'm not happy if I need use cr away from home. In Dumaguete I go McDonalds or Robinson, they clean regulary, don't sit on the seat, good exercise lol, flush with my foot, I know sorry for the next one, use foot or elbow to open the door, still, it doesn't help anything, when I go to a food place and staff don't wash their hands. Most of us have an okay immune system to the surroundings we live in and only when we get bacterias in a big amount it affects us, I really don't like to think about it but we can't deny reality. I'm sure staff here in Philippines don't have hygiene course before they work with food, just reality in the 3.word

 

If you use tap water in Sibulan for cooking, drinking, brushing your teeth or showering then read this!

Diarrhea downs 169 in Negros Oriental
July 19, 2018, 7:07 pm

 

OR . . .
There is one piece of paper that everyone scribbles on to test the pen. If the pen does not work they put it back in the container and test another one. Before long, all the pens in the container do not work because the ones that do work have been purchased. So there is lots of stock . . . . of pens that do not write.