Anyone here know if it’s possible to build up an immunity to Montezuma’s revenge (the stuff in mexican water that makes it unsafe for foreigners to drink)? Could I get a vaccine for it, or is it too nasty for adults to adapt to?
You will adapt to it eventually. Eventually may end up being a long time though…
What timing. I was just reading about enteric bacteria today (the “stuff”, as you so eloquently put it, is different serotypes of various bacteria). Vaccine? Nope. The bacteria live in the gut. It’s just about impossible to get good life-long immunity to anything in the digestive system, because memory cells live in the blood.
As for building up immunity, I’d say maybe kinda. Every region of the world has its own group of common enteric pathogens. Typically, people that live there don’t get sick from them, but when a traveler comes by, he or she is exposed to bacteria the body isn’t used to. BTW, people from other countries often get diarrhea when they come to America, so it’s not entirely the fault of bad sanitation. Anyway, the question is “In order to be immune to the local flora, do I have to actually grow up there, or will I get used to it if I’m exposed long enough?” And the answer is I don’t know. I suspect the latter, but I’m not sure.
If I were you, I’d stay away from them forern coutries. Sum of them don’t speak no american, even if ya shout at em real loud
A friend from Cuba stayed with me in Canada for a couple of months. For the first few weeks he had … problems.
Shoot, if your friend had anything like what I had when I visited Mexico, problems doesn’t begin to describe it. Imagine dropping 10-15 lbs. in a few hours of absolute, total misery. Fortunately, most antibiotics are over the counter in Mexico, so my wife ran out, got the antidote to what was ailing me, and I was plugged up again by the next morning. Which is fortunate, since I only weighed 130 to start with. If I had continued to shed weight at the rate I started out with, I would’ve been about as substantial as Tinker Bell by the time 24 hours had passed.
Don’t you just love Mexico? Between the trots, the crooked cabs, the very crooked police, bellhops offering you ‘girls’ every time you pass them, hookers in the elevators, hookers on the boulevard island, the muggers, the thieves, the crooked store keepers and crooked politicians, it’s a pretty interesting place. Wear a gas mask in Mexico City, though, and a BP vest. If the pollution doesn’t get you, the taxi mugger might.
You can get used to the water by developing an immunity to the assorted sludge in it and the natural high mineral content. I think you should eat a real Mexican diet though because the stuff they eat contains enough hot pepper to sterilize anything in your stomach, bowels and anus. They mean it when they say it burns going in and coming out.
To be safe, boil any well water or drop purification tablets in it before drinking, if you are out in the country, away from piped in water. I don’t know what they use for water treatment, but often the piped in stuff is just as bad. I carried a military water filtering unit I bought from a surplus catalogue and filtered my hotel water because they charged you for bottled stuff. It worked, which it should have because, according to the military, you could drink ditch water that had been filtered through the thing.
(Those little sloe-eyed, black haired, 5 foot nothing Chiquita’s were nice too!)