You are of course totally correct when you say there are two different approaches when it comes to stomach problems and food poisoning and the first is to prevent and the second is to treat.

Preventing isnt easy, especially when youre on the move constantly and seldom spend more than a few days in the same place. We can and should be careful about our own hygiene, especially about hand hygiene after a toilet visit and such, and of course look, smell and taste carefully if we are unsure if food are good or not good. But what goes on with the food before we buy and eat it is beyond our possible knowledge. So we have use our common senses…
As you wrote - we can get a stomach bug even in a 5 star restaurant just as easy as from a handcart foodstall in the streets of southeast Asia.

When it comes to treating a stomach bug infection - well its fine to disagree. We can try to have a fruitful discussion about this subject.

First my personal experiences - when I took off on my RTW trip I also carried Flagyl for the treatment of stomach bugs. Flagyl or Metrodinasole as is its generic name is mostly used to treat amoeba anf parasitic infections but it isnt effective against most bacterias - as far as I understand. Anyhow I carried Flagyl and not Cipro because I had an idea that this was the better medication for GI infections.
So my first encounter with severe stomach bugs was in Kazakhstan. I took Flagyl but no help in that. I travelled with a US guy who had been in ths US army foe most of his life, he was just retired. He had been to the US Army doctor before he took off and he carried Cipro. So eventually I got some Cipro from him and voila after a day I was 99 % ok again. The same happend a couple of weeks later upon entering China. I got really sick and could hardly go out of bed for a couple of days, only to the toilet 1-2 times pr hour. Flagyl did not help this time either so I had to borrow Cipro from my travel mate again. So the US army docs certainly knew his stuff! And again - voila after 2 tablets I was good to go again. And later on in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Bolivia (3 freaking times in that country alone) Peru, Colombia, Panama etc etc - I have always stuck to Cipro and it has always cured me up quickly.

I did some research and remember I read an article that was written by a doctor here in Norway where Im from and he wrote that Ciproflxacillin would be effective on approx 95 % of all stomach bugs one could aquire. And by that that would be the most important medication to bring on a longer travel abroad to hotter parts of the world. And I think that doctor also recommended Flagyl when stool was bloody too.

I have also used mr Google to ask what bugs that normally causes food poisoning and according to for example this site from the UKs NHS the 4 most common bugs are:
Campylobacter
E. Coli
Salmonella
Norovirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/food-poisoning/
And other sites I could find also mentiones similar or identical causes/bugs. And none of these are parasites as you mention are the main reason for GI infections. So I wonder what sources you have for what you write that parasites are the most common causes to GI troubles?

For sure there are many parasites that can cause food poisoning/Gi infection - but to my knowledge they are not the main cause of such problems.

The correct way to treat a real stomach/GI infection is to take a sample of the stool and grow it in a lab and thus find what bug that causes the infection - so that the treatment can be directed directly towards that specific bug.

Of course out on the road this is seldom possible unless youre admitted to a hospital, so some kind of self diagnosis is neccesary.

I have found out that what I read in that article from the norwegian travel clinic doctor that Cipro will be efficient on 95 % of all bugs you hit out in the third world why travelling to be true. Other might have different experiences - and it is interesting to hear about it…

PS - Im not a native english speaker so my language might be a bit awkward when it comes to such detailed topics as in this thread. I ask for understanding of this and Im happy to be correctes if my language isnt quite correct….

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