Parasites are a major problem in the Philippines. One survey of 30,000 people across the country found that 86% had intestinal parasites of some sort, sometimes a few types at the same time.
The few stomach troubles I’d had I put down to just getting used to the food. In my view, one of the best things about travel is trying new local foods. A bit of antigenic stimulation is good for you – right? That's what I thought until I found out I was incubating a few thousand parasites in my belly. I can’t pinpoint how or when I got infected; I might have drunk water that wasn’t filtered or eaten dirty vegetables.
For two weeks, the parasites had been living in my lower intestine and going about their lifecycle. Finally, my body retaliated. It was incredible how quickly it all happened. One minute I was fine, and the next I was vomiting. I assumed it was food poisoning from the disappointing Thai food we’d had that night. I thought it would pass.
After two hours of projectile vomiting, I started to cough up blood. At that point, my kind, compassionate and ever-helpful housemates decided it’d be a good time to take me to hospital. So off they went to find some transport. Then, I started loosing blood out both ends. At this point, all alone on the first night in my new house, both my body and I finally realized that something was seriously wrong.
I had Amoebiasis, a water-borne protozoal parasite. It’s quite common in the Philippines for people to carry the parasitic amoeba Entamoeba histolytica, but only some people develop symptoms of Amoebiasis. The World Health Organization estimates around 100,000 people die worldwide from Entamoeba histolytica infections per year.
Being a commensal organism the amoebas had been living in a symbiotic relationship with the good bacteria in my gut. The only reason my body realized there were unwelcome guests was because the infection got so bad that they entered my bloodstream. I even had symptoms of them in my lungs (hence the coughing up blood).
These freeloaders will take up residence in your organs if they’re ignored for too long. They can remain completely unnoticed in your body for up to three years. So, I could look on the bright side and say that at least I only had them for the normal incubation period of about two weeks. I’d only been in the country for three weeks before I got this introduction to the Philippines.
Once at hospital, after everyone had peeked behind the curtain to gawk at the sick white girl in emergency, I was admitted. Meanwhile, my body was doing all it could push everything that was inside, outside. Thousands of eggs, or cysts, were sent into the sewerage, ready to infect another poor unsuspecting individual.The amoebas can’t live outside of the body, but the cysts can survive outside the body for months. The cysts are often found in farm soils, mainly because sewerage is not treated properly, and fields are often fertilized with dirty water. That’s why it’s so important to ‘cook it, peel it or leave it’.
There are two possible lifecycles for this parasite. First the cysts are ingested, then from each mature cyst eight amoeba’s hatch. They latch onto the large intestine, and eat away your cells – such as the lining of your intestine and your blood – and produce more cysts. When the cysts exit the body they are infective and if eaten can create another eight amoebas. The second possible lifecycle only occurs in 10% of cases. This is where the amoeba’s burrow through the intestine and move through the bloodstream to infect organs such as the liver, lungs, heart and brain.
I lost a lot of fluid, and my Potassium levels were dangerously low. The amoebas were getting along quite well with my normal gut flora, so every living thing in my digestive tract needed to be killed. I was started on a really strong course of antibiotics, plus another antiprotozoal drug, and a diet of rice crackers and bananas.
I was on a drip in hospital for three days. One unexpected side effect was the excruciating pain of the Potassium in my drip. It was a dull, heavy ache that was amplified 100 times by moving – even flicking the remote made me feel like I had just won the Iron Man Challenge. Luckily, the cute nurses helped me cope with strong painkillers and gorgeous smiles.
A week later, I had to give a ‘sample’ to test if all of the amoebas were out. The nurse handed me two glass bottles which were smaller than the palm of my hand, each with an opening the size of a pea. I thought she was joking. The lady waiting behind me, obviously keen to get her test results, urged me on by saying ‘Just a piece’ while giggling under her breath. I can’t imagine how they could know that I was now healthy from the diminutive stool sample I supplied. Handing your sample jar to a nurse is embarrassing at the best of times – having to forcefully insert and then hand over my miniature clear bottle was probably my worst moment.
I am now fully recovered and feeling fine. But knowing that I have now infected the water in Los Banos with a bunch of Entamoeba histolytica cysts, I won’t be brushing my teeth with the tap water anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment