Pop quiz, hot shot.

How do you avoid food poisoning from hot pot – or from other Chinese-style restaurants?

Don’t ask me.

I just got over a bout of dysentery.

But you could ask my doctor, Joseph Bush, an internal medicine physician over at Beijing Kerry Centre’s Vista Clinic.

I did in hopes of preventing another China disease disaster, especially since it kept me out of an important conference in Tianjin, bedridden for a week, and hooked up to IV antibiotics.

“Usually for the type of infection you had, it’s due to uncooked meat, or fecal-related or oral,” Dr. Bush said. “It can be spread by people not washing their hands.”

Great, so does that make me a dirty guy who just doesn’t wash properly?

Not necessarily.

“You could have picked it up from chopsticks,” Dr. Bush said. “It’s better if you use disposable chopsticks.”

I was wondering about that. You see, right before I became symptomatic, I was eating hot pot. Sure you boil food in the boiling hot water-based pot, but you’re handling raw meat with chopsticks that perhaps you’re not boiling long enough as well. Could uncooked chopsticks have been the culprit in my case?

“It could have been,” Dr. Bush said. “It’s hard to say.”

Well, I also ate a ham and cheese croissant right after the hot pot that looked like it had been sunning itself a little too long unrefrigerated. And I probably shook a few hands that day too without rinsing afterwards.

Dr. Bush said his clinic sees a lot more traveler’s diarrhea than dysentery.

Traveler’s diarrhea can simply result from a change in the body’s E. coli bugs, and lasts just a day or two. The treatment is a couple days of antibiotics, plenty of fluids, and something like Pepto-Bismol or Imodium AD to keep you from running to the toilet.

Dysentery symptoms are more intense, which often results in – pardon the nasty description – bloody diarrhea, fever and chills.

“I used to work on an Indian reservation out West,” Dr. Bush said, referring to the western United States. “It was typical for them to come out with dysentery too, which was a reflection of [poor] hygiene on the reservation.”

Bacillary dysentery can be caused by a variety of bacteria, such as Shigella or Salmonella.

“It sounds like you really got whacked with a bug like Salmonella,” Dr. Bush told me.

There’s also a form called Amoebic dysentery, according to Wikipedia, but this is synonymous with “traveler’s dysentery” and “Montezuma’s Revenge.” This seems to be the lighter version of diarrhea that Dr. Bush was talking about.

The most important treatment for dysentery appears to be replacing fluids and other essential nutrients, because you’re loosing so much. I also had a course of levofloxacin, first intravenously over three days, then orally. When an epidemic of dysentery occurs, 5 to 15 percent of cases are fatal, more common in infants, the elderly and malnourished people, according to the BBC. But epidemics, clearly, are extremely rare and you’ll probably be on the first flight out if that ever happened.

Don’t be too worried about Montezuma’s Revenge – or anything more serious – in China.

Dr. Bush said he’s been here for seven years and only once experienced diarrhea problems.

Then again, I’ve been here for two years and this is my second experience, the first being something akin to the traveler’s crappy version.

To avoid these problems, Dr. Bush recommended the following:

• Wash fruits and vegetables in sterile water. Peel your fruits before eating.
• Wash your hands frequently.
• If you suspect someone’s sick at a Lazy Susan dinner, you may not want to dive in with your chopsticks like everyone else. Dr. Bush considers the Lazy Susan to be more of a food hazard than hot pot. Or perhaps you could recommend to the person to scoop their food out with a spoon rather than use their chopsticks. I say, if you feel like opting out of the rotating food plates altogether, you could spend time rotating around the room toasting your guests so as not to offend anyone. For some toasting tips, listen to our podcast here.

Mr. Bush couldn’t say for sure whether travelers would be at greater risk in the countryside for dysentery or not, but recommended excellent hygiene no matter where work or leisure takes you.

    Channel: Vital News     |