Symptoms of staph food poisoning include nausea, vomiting, retching, stomach cramping, and diarrhea. In more severe cases, dehydration, headache, muscle cramping, and changes in blood pressure and pulse rate may occur. Symptoms generally come on quickly. How severe they are depends on your susceptibility to the toxin, how much contaminated food you ate, how much of the toxin you ingested, and your general health. The condition is generally over in 2 days; however, it is not unusual for complete recovery to take 3 days and sometimes longer in severe cases. – WebMD
I met a guy in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica a few years ago who had come down with a case of food poisoning after eating undercooked chicken. He said he noticed the chicken looked odd, however ate it anyway (lesson: always trust your instincts). He described the next few days like death. The people at the hostel helped get him some antibiotic, I think, however he basically had to wait it out in his tent. I have a slight sense of what that must've been like after this past weekend.
At 4am Saturday morning, the nurse I spoke to on the advice line said it was either the stomach flu (gastroenteritis), or a mild case of food poisoning. Don't try telling me what I was going through was “mild,” I thought. I had spent the last 4 hours feeling possessed in my bathroom. Like a scene from The Exorcist, I was not in control of my body. At the time, I ran through memories of my worst alcohol-related experiences, and none came close. Indeed, whatever had invaded my digestive tract was pure evil.
By sunrise Saturday, the worst of it seemed to be over. I was able to keep down the little sips of water I had been taking since 4am, and was continuing to drift in and out of sleep. I had a headache for which I couldn't take medicine (for fear it wouldn't stay down), and a sore throat. I had lost about 5 pounds in the past 24 hours. I spent Saturday in bed, trying to catch up on my sleep. By Sunday morning, at the time I'm writing this post, my headache has dissipated, and sore throat abated. I had signed up for a Photo Safari of Old Town Alexandria for this afternoon, with the hope that I could improve my photography skills, however I don't have the energy to attend.
One of my bigger travel fears is coming down with food poisoning (among other diseases), especially if I am in a rural or remote area (such as the Himalaya). If you've ever read advice on how to avoid it, you know the experts basically suggest you stay away from street food altogether, and take a very strict approach toward eating anything else. For example, you should stay away from raw lettuce (as in salads) in case they were washed with contaminated water.
For better or worse, I now have a sense of what it would feel like, and I didn't even need to buy a plane ticket.
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Read more about Food Poisoning or Stomach Flu at WebMD
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Boris says
April 29, 2007 at 3:14 pmdave, it’s so much fun eating at food stalls, especially in asia, with a big part of life happening on the streets. apart from the odd case of bombay belly, i’ve only once gotten seriously ill from food or water. and that was after eating at a steak house on samui. when you eat at stalls just go to the one with the most customers and you’ll be alright.
Stu says
April 29, 2007 at 4:27 pmwe ate off the streets in turkey no prob, but we watched the guys grill it in front of us. if you think your gonna be in remote himalaya, take some aquamirra or get a msr miox pen.. :) aquamirra is works great (I can attest to drinking about 9ltrs+ a day for 3-4months of aquamirra’d water).
theres a stomachflu bug going around at work so it might not be food. be carefull who you snog in clubs and bars ;) hehehe its the easiest way to come down with something.
Dan says
April 30, 2007 at 12:42 amA few years ago I had food poisoning just before a flight, I woke up in the morning feeling pretty seedy as were a couple of others, somehow I managed to get enough out of me beforehand to survive the flight with no incident, barely.
Lucky it was mild I hate to think what the flight would have been like had it not been.
Stu says
April 30, 2007 at 7:13 amI remember sleeping in an airport overnight so we could catch an early flight out of london before the tubes started running, and they turned off the chiller fridges in the airport overnight, so next morning I got an OJ from the chiller fridge. smelled ok. tasted ok.. was BAAAAAAAAAAAD. went straight through just before I got on the plane. That was one naaasty flight. Ofcourse I chucked on the plan, and the hostess put the paperbag in the only working toilet, which of course tipped over in the garbage bin and stunk out the whole back of the plan and made the toilet near unusable. That was a rough flight for me and everyone else on the plane ;) ahahahah
Dave says
April 30, 2007 at 2:29 pmWhoa, that’s gross!
Mike says
April 30, 2007 at 2:08 pmDave, given the adventurous eater that you are, I can’t imagine you not eating at food stalls and taking a really strict approach to not eating anything even remotely suspect. I think, in may developing nations, virtually everything (except for perhaps McD’s) is suspect. What Boris said about just eating where the locals eat – the stands with the longest lines – seems like the way to go.
Sorry to hear about your “incident” over the weekend.
Mike says
April 30, 2007 at 10:08 amDave, given the adventurous eater that you are, I can’t imagine you not eating at food stalls and taking a really strict approach to not eating anything even remotely suspect. I think, in may developing nations, virtually everything (except for perhaps McD’s) is suspect. What Boris said about just eating where the locals eat – the stands with the longest lines – seems like the way to go.
Sorry to hear about your “incident” over the weekend.
Dave says
April 30, 2007 at 12:00 pmMike – you’re right, I don’t intend to skip street food. I think it’s too big a part of the experience. Still, it continues to be encouraging to hear others testify to the lack of problems they’ve had while traveling long term.
I pointed out the advice from “experts” to try and show how unrealistic I believe it to be for most people.
Mike says
April 30, 2007 at 1:07 pmVery cool, Dave. I can’t wait to hear your “culinary reports from the road” when your trip finally gets underway.