When Travel Goes Down The Drain-Attempting to Conquer "Montezuma's Revenge"

Two days ago I returned from what most people would probably consider their ideal winter holiday vacation. My parents have a timeshare in Mazatlan, a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, located on the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula. We stay at a beautiful luxury beach resort, bask in the sun or frolic on the beach all day and go into town at night searching for nightlife and of course, new places to eat.

There is an abundance of chips, salsa, margaritas…a few enchiladas here, some chicken fajitas there, and some food poisoning on the side. Yes, that is correct…FOOD POISONING. This year, two days into our vacation, my mom and my younger brother got very sick from something they ate or drank. They are both okay now and I won’t get into details, but they both spent the majority of the trip in the bathroom, eating dry toast and plain tortilla chips, watching the sun rise and set…in bed. Definitely not the way most of us want to spend an international holiday! Although I was not thrilled to watch them go through this for over half of the trip, it did spawn this piece of writing.

It is already clear that many people don’t pay attention to what they put in their mouths, but when you go on a trip to another country, especially one that has a special name for the type of food poisoning people tend to contract while visiting, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate that unknown meat dish or mixed drink you are about to shovel down your pie-hole.

They call it “Montezuma’s Revenge.” Montezuma was the Aztec emperor of Mexico from 1502 to 1520. It was during his reign that the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire took place. Referring to this incident, travellers from Europe named the disease, caused by consuming local water and food while visiting Mexico and other Latin American countries.

A less stereotypical name for this illness is Traveler’s Diarrhea, or TD. Apparently, this is a common illness that affects 10 million travelers annually- or 20-50% of international travelers. Typically symptoms occur abruptly, but they can occur at any time while traveling and even after returning home. Symptoms range from four to five loose or watery bowel movements each day. Other commonly associated symptoms are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping, bloating, low fever and loss of appetite. Yes, all the fun stuff.

So getting scientific on this subject for a minute, I find that surveys of this illness done in various countries where traveler’s diarrhea is recurrent find that the most common causative agent has been entertoxigenic Escherchia coli (Whew! Say that 10 times fast), which is a bacterial enteropathogen, which in human terms, is basically a bacteria that causes bacterial infection. Other common pathogens related to traveler’s diarrhea are campylobacter jejuni, shigella and salmonella. Just so you know, the most common cause of shigella is from going to the bathroom and NOT WASHING YOUR HANDS! It is estimated that 80% of cases of traveler’s diarrhea are caused from these sorts of bacterias. The other 20% come from viruses and protozoal pathogens…just lovely!

According to the CDC, poor hygiene practice in local restaurants is said to be the largest contributing risk factor for TD. So chances are, my beloved family members contracted this illness during one of our adventurous excursions into town at a non-resort based restaurant. Other primary sources of infection are typically contaminated food or water that has not been treated to eliminate amoebas or bacteria responsible for illness. Improper washing of vegetables and fruit can also result in illness.

Also, I should make this clear…this article was spawned off of a situation in Mexico, but don’t be fooled, this condition is not specific to Latin America! By ingesting a strain of the any of the above listed bacterium that one’s body is unaccustomed to, this is an event just as likely in London and Los Angeles as it is in Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas.

So, you are probably wondering, what can I do to prevent this from happening on my next vacation? Can I only eat crackers and bring bags of trail mix from home? OF COURSE NOT. Obviously, on a trip you want to enjoy yourself, and food is a huge part of that for many people. I would never ask you to not enjoy local cuisines, but there are a few things you can do to minimize this potentially ever happening to you or anyone in your family.

• Nowadays, typically if you are staying at a resort, the ice and water have been treated and are said to be safe. That is what they told us where we stayed, and of course at every restaurant we went to…so one can ever really be sure. If you want to be VERY SURE, drink bottled water, bottled carbonated beverages, hot tea or coffee, and water boiled or otherwise treated by yourself. Again, chances of you treating your water are also probably very slim, because hey, you are on vacation and probably don’t want to take the time to boil your own water or buy a UV purification device (another option for water treatment), so stick with bottled drinking sources for the most part.
• Maintain good hygiene and only use safe water for drinking and tooth brushing. Again, water in our resort was deemed “safe”, so I am assuming whatever made my mom and brother sick was outside of the resort.
• In restaurants, insist that bottled water be unsealed in your presence. I know it might sound neurotic, but after this last trip, it might be worth the hassle. In the past, reports of locals filling empty bottles with untreated tap water and reselling them as purified water have come out of several countries. When in doubt, a bottled carbonated beverage is the safest choice, since it is almost impossible to “fake” carbonation when refilling a used bottle.
• Avoid eating raw fruits and vegetables unless you peel them personally.
• Avoid green salads, because it is unlikely that the lettuce will have been washed with bottled water. For someone like myself, this is not always fun, because I like to be healthy and eat my veggies. But, you never know! I can always eat them back at home.
• If handled properly, well-cooked (ie; still hot and/or recently been cooked and put on your plate) and packaged foods are usually safe. Eating raw or undercooked meat and seafood should be avoided. Unpasteurized milk and dairy products are also associated with increased risk for TD.

When all is said and done, none of these precautionary steps is going to promise you TD immunity, but it can at least minimize the possibilities. Safe travels to all!!