salmonella poisoning

[Guest guest]

Did anyone see the meat industry story on Frontline last night? I watched

the first half hour, then fell asleep, unfortunately. One thing that caught

my attention in the opening segment, was the people who had had salmonella

poisoning. One woman said she lost her spleen(!) and her immune system is

now shot. Am I remembering correctly that she had *salmonella* poisoning,

not e.coli? Uggh! The reason this caught my attention is that *I've* had a

serious case of salmonella poisoning myself AND typhoid fever. I was 22 at

the time, and was in Kathmandu, Nepal when I got it. I assume that I had

salmonella typhii - the kind that is commonly accompanied by typhoid fever.

Anyway, I'm wondering if it caused me any lasting damage...

Briefly, I ate all the wrong stuff in Nepal - meaning stuff we were told NOT

to eat. We were supposed to NOT eat from roadside vendors, not eat raw fruit

without thoroughly cleaning it, and not drink water without boiling it or

putting a quinine tablet in first. But I went ahead anyway and ate lots of

mangoes, drank untreated water, and ate from questionable vendors. All the

students in my program got sick at some point. I did too, multiple times, so

it's hard for me to identify which gut wrenching episode was the onset of

the salmonella poisoning, but I'm pretty sure it was the episode after I ate

a few samosas at a little hovel next to a movie theater. I had been told

that Nepalis often re-use cooking oil over and over (it's an extremely poor

country) and that petrol oil is sometimes used in cooking. For some reason I

was under the impression at the time, that I got ill from the oil, although

in retrospect, I'm not sure how you can get salmonella from *oil*...

Anyway, after eating the samosa, i went to a movie with my nepali friend

(who ate the same thing, but didn't get sick). I started feeling violently

ill during the movie, and had to return to my school, where I was staying at

the time. I honestly can't describe the pain - it felt like my stomach was

literally exploding over and over again. It finally subsided, but would come

back in waves in the ensuing days and weeks. Finally, maybe 3 weeks later

(or thereabouts) I started getting the fever, getting very weak, and

continued to have digestive problems. I was living in my own apartment

(replete with rats, and roaches the size of mice - that fell on my face

sometimes when I slept!), and my classmates had ALL left for the mountains,

as well as the program director. I was the only one who was doing my

independent study in 'the city' so didn't have anyone to call when I started

getting ill. Also, I was working evenings as restaurant manager (more like a

cashier), but had to stop because I was too weak. I got so weak that I

couldn't stand. When I did manage to go to the hole in the ground (the

bathroom) all that came out was blood (sorry to be so graphic). I did manage

to fix myself some Indian ramen once or twice. But I think I eventually got

too weak to even do that. I just remember laying on my straw mat on the

floor trying to read some horror novel and not being able to concentrate. I

lifted my hand and held it about 8-10 inches in front of my face and I could

feel the heat emanating from my face! I was really burning up. Finally, I

realized I might just perish if I didn't get help, so somehow I managed to

drag myself outside and catch a rickshaw, or cab to my school. No one was

there. but within a few days, people started returning from the mountains

and someone brought me to a clinic for diagnostics. I think I was fairly

delirious at this point, because everything seemed like a dream, and I just

remember laying on the wooden bench in the clinic thinking, hurry up, i'm

not sure how much longer I can keep going. Finally got the results -

salmonella and typhoid fever, and my school's russian doc put me on

antibiotics pronto. But also, get this, she said I had to eat red meat if I

wanted to recover. I had not knowingly eaten red meat since I was fifteen

(except I may have in germany during my time studying there, and may have

unknowing eaten some dishes in Nepal that contained it).

So I did. They don't *eat* cows in nepal though, as they are sacred. Instead

they eat water buffalo. Ironically, about a month prior I had accidentally

witnessed the slaughter of a water buffalo on the riverside that I passed

each day on my way to school. It was tough for me to see, as a lover of 4

legged critters - the reason i had not eaten them for so long. The nepali

slaughterer hacked away at the buffalo's neck with an ax until the animal

collapsed. But, when push came to shove and my doc said eat red meat to

recover, you better believe I did!

Well, that was supposed to be a brief story...oh well.

So, did anyone see the Frontline story? Did they discuss salmonella

poisoning in the second half of the show (when I slept)? I'm curious what

the potential long-term effects might be, although I imagine it would vary

from case to case. When I returned to the states, my family doc said i

didn't appear to have any lasting effects, although I don't think he

actually checked anything internally. Has anyone else had salmonella

poisoning? Do you have any long term health problems as a result? Does

anyone know if previous exposure to a particular strain provides some type

of long term immunity to that strain of bacteria? I'm under the impression

that *constant low level* exposure actually 'provides' better immunity than

a one-time acute case..? Not like the typhoid strain is common here in the

states, but I still wonder about the exposure and immunity issue.

any thoughts?

Suze Fisher

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg/

mailto:s.fisher22@...