Avoiding Delhi Belly

[ikarl]

I was there with work a few years back and the main bit of advice (once you got Delhi belly) was avoid Immodium.

All it does is delay the inevitable and give you a pain in the stomach/gut in the meantime

[amancalledrob]

audidoody said:

First trip to India booked for December (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-Udaipur).

All hints and tips from seasoned India-goers to avoid spending most of the time sitting down gratefully received

I've been to all of those when I went travelling. Brilliant. Was in India for just over a month.

Didn't take any hand sanitiser, but stuck to bottled water and ate mostly vegetable chow mein. Only ate meat twice - once at TGI Friday's at Connaught Place in Delhi, once at Pizza Hut in Agra. Wasn't amazing. But anyway the advice re hand washing and avoiding meat is good.

Anyway have a fantastic time. I'm longing for the day when I can do a big SE Asia trip again but it'll probably have to wait until my cat dies (wouldn't want to leave him in a cattery for months) and he's only three. Ah well, in the meantime at least I've got a cat...

[carreauchompeur]

ikarl said:

I was there with work a few years back and the main bit of advice (once you got Delhi belly) was avoid Immodium.

All it does is delay the inevitable and give you a pain in the stomach/gut in the meantime

That's fine, until you need to get a flight the next morning and are squeaking uncontrollable brown steam out of your jacksie every 30mins.

Yes, that was me.

Luckily the loperamide finally kicked in about an hour before I had to leave for the airport (0400hrs). Guts were in a complete state for a good week afterwards though, 36hrs of loperamide usage does have "effects"...

[sjg]

carreauchompeur said:

I've developed this into a minor art.

The key thing which works for me is carrying around a small bottle of alcohol hand gel and using it very regularly- Always before eating, after handling money etc...

I wouldn't get too concerned about street food, if you look at the state of some of the kitchens in "nice" restaurants that's a far greater threat. If you can see the food being cooked in front of you it makes a big difference.

Always avoid ice cream. The electricity supply and supply chain isn't nearly regular enough to trust it. I would also avoid salads as they are invariably washed in dodgy water.

In India, I would strongly recommend doing what I did- Go vegetarian. This removes a major element of risk and India is very well set up for vegetarianism- In fact the quality of most of the meat dishes is pretty low. There are loads of "pure vegetarian" restaurants. On the coast you're fairly safe with fish, etc as it is caught daily.

This post is really all you need to know. I've spent a couple of months in India across a few trips and no problems - my Mrs is vegetarian anyway so it was just easiest to go to pure veg places.

Don't miss out on some awesome street food, but go for stuff that's cooked in front of you. A quick fry will kill off anything nasty on the outside.

IMO, the biggest cause of "delhi belly" is people just getting dehydrated (not wanting to find a toilet when they're out and about, or worried about the water) combined with a change of diet.

[Mastodon2]

YankeePorker said:

Coke is definitely your friend - it can etch metal so it's damned good at killing stomach bugs!

I don't doubt that Coca Cola is a great picker upper, but I'd guess that probably to do with the sugar and the small amount of caffeine in it. It's not going to be "good at killing stomach bugs" in the slightest because it's less acidic than the natural environment of the stomach anyway, and as the human gut contains billions upon billions of bacteria, if coke destroyed those bacteria you'd have a serious medical issue on your hands. Coke is not some magic biocide that seeks out the "bad" bacteria in your gut and destroys them, it's just a fizzy drink. If the body does suffer an invasion of a bacteria which is going to cause some problems, and the body's pryogenic and lymphocyte response cannot deal with the invasion, it will eject the contents of the gut as quickly as it can, hello Dehli belly. Coke won't save you from that!

[audidoody]

Thanks for the Dr Fox link - i've bought a couple of courses of azithromycin to deal with what will probably be the inevitable!

I'm not particularly worried about a bit of upset - just rather concerned at not being able to locate a convenient facility with which to resolve the immediate urgent problem in a timely manner when it strikes!

Edited by audidoody on Thursday 24th October 10:48

[carreauchompeur]

You'll be fine- This is where the loperamide comes in if you can't stay in your en-suite room within feet of a toilet

Does work pretty fast too.

[Mermaid]

Old Merc said:

One tip to think about that someone gave me the last time I was in Egypt was money? Just imagine how many people have handled the cash in your holiday pocket? I was told that most Egyptian taxi drivers keep cash in their underpants!!!

Get wide denomination currency in Europe, and hand it out but don't take anything back

[jas xjr]

last time I was in india all coca cola was taken off the shelves as it had been made with contaminated water . I think some chemicals from local farms had seeped into the water table .

[Cheib]

Mate of mine lived in West Africa for a few years....the local ex pats seemed to take the view you recovered quicker if you let it works it's way through naturally. But then they aren't on holiday with time constraints etc.

When I visited him I had everything very well cooked, never anything washed, avoided ice cubes etc and was fine. The plane toilets on the way home were always very busy though!

One of my other mates went out there and had the trotts on the journey home....when he'd finished in the plane bogs he just went to the back of the queue for his next sitting.

[anonymous-user]

A tip I was given prior to my first Indian trip, was not to leave your tooth brush in the bath room, hide it so the maid doesn't wash it in tap water

[clarkey]

I'm fairly convinced that problems are usually due to poor hand hygiene, not the food. Clean handles in your hotel room, clean the hands with alcohol gel after you've touched anything.
I'd happy eat anything that was cooked hot and fresh, but wouldn't be happy not cleaning my hands after touching a door handle, money, a bannister or a lift button.....

[carreauchompeur]

Berw said:

A tip I was given prior to my first Indian trip, was not to leave your tooth brush in the bath room, hide it so the maid doesn't wash it in tap water

I generally don't worry too much about brushing teeth with tap water, never gone too far astray (yet!)

[amancalledrob]

carreauchompeur said:

Berw said:

A tip I was given prior to my first Indian trip, was not to leave your tooth brush in the bath room, hide it so the maid doesn't wash it in tap water

I generally don't worry too much about brushing teeth with tap water, never gone too far astray (yet!)

+1 - especially if an antibacterial mouthwash is used

[Henry Fiddleton]

Also avoid cheese.

I went to Pakistan and was convinced to try a "Mr Burger" cheese burger. I was aware of the possible issue with the cheese, but thought a small case of bad stomache was ok.

How wrong was I.

Fever, weakness, the trotts combined with a 3 hour drive from Kharaci to Hyderabad with a driver who was racing our friends using the public bus - never again. I was out for 3 days, and still had food pass through me for 7 days. Lost good weight though.

FYI: the burger was good, but not amazing.

Kam

[the_stoat]

My tip is do not swim with elephants as if one kicks you in the nuts and you fall into the water with your mouth open amoebic dysentery is likely to follow. Never again!

[Bill]

Henry Fiddleton said:

Also avoid cheese.

I went to Pakistan and was convinced to try a "Mr Burger" cheese burger. I was aware of the possible issue with the cheese, but thought a small case of bad stomache was ok.

How wrong was I.

Fever, weakness, the trotts combined with a 3 hour drive from Kharaci to Hyderabad with a driver who was racing our friends using the public bus - never again. I was out for 3 days, and still had food pass through me for 7 days. Lost good weight though.

FYI: the burger was good, but not amazing.

Kam

What makes you think it was the cheese?

The worst I've had was after a meal in a "good" hotel from a (veggie) buffet - fresh cooked is the way forward IMO. I have friends who swear by veggie food though.

[Steve Benson]

Don't order tandoori prawns then get pi55ed up and have a go at the waiter for taking so long. I don't know what he did to them but they certainly livened up a 12 hour train journey.

Check bottled water for drill marks on the base, this is usually how they re fill them with the seal intact.

[goodfella7777]

some of the advice is just ridiculous.

wiping door handles with sensitisers, not washing your toothbrush with tap water, etc etc. Its absolute nonsense

if you get paranoid about the whole issue, it will only make it worse.

carry you emergency medication, stick to clean water and take care about where you eat, you would do just fine

Someone suggested going vegetarian , that certainly wont guarantee eliminating 'Delhi belly' but you will certainly miss out on some of the best Indian curries

[Gareth79]

Steve Benson said:

Check bottled water for drill marks on the base, this is usually how they re fill them with the seal intact.

I can't figure out why? The cap has to be removed to pour out the contents - the hard part is making the customer think when the cap is removed they have a brand new bottle. Assuming they don't have a supply of new caps, I think they either dab glue on the ring, or the waiter has a trick to opening the bottle that makes it sound like a new one.