Airline passenger news and views

We received an email at the office last week from a company selling Diarrhoea pills for travelers.

Their pitch was that the unpredictable English summer has encouraged hard working Brits to take to the skies for some well earned breaks but that 56% of them were concerned about effects on their health from contracting Travellers' Diarrhoea.

Apparently, they had conducted a survey of 3,000 such travelers and 60% had fallen ill on holiday.

On deeper reading, it turned out that the majority 71% had actually been to Africa, India, Parkistan and Egypt and so these problems would not necessarily be that surprising.   The email sought to blame hotels and tour operators but did have the grace to admit that local water, food and environment could have had an impact.

Essentially, the email was promoting a patented second generation prebiotic, one of these 'good gut' bacteria that had been scientifically proven and was just £9.99 for a pack of 30.

The email was amusing because it was so crass and littered with percentages and fairly outrageous claims.

However, it did act as a reminder that water and food in these far-flung destinations is a continuing problem. Even washing you teeth in local water in Egypt (personal experience) can cause problems.  The big problem is that some of these bugs do not go away and even if you get over them after the holiday and take the medication, some of them stay in the body ready to pop-up again at some future time and bite you.

It is just worth saying, again and again, that if one is going to countries that have known water and food problems then getting the right advice, taking the prescribed tablets at least a week before you leave and possibly following up with suitable medication is a seriously good precaution. 

I have no wish to knock prebiotics or any of the newer bacteria based research but having once had food poisoning myself, I would not wish it on anyone else.

Be the first to comment on this.