Huh?

[guanin]

I'm headed off to México in 3 weeks with a professor of mine and a couple of other people and it seems that some of them are getting vaccinated just for that. I'd heard of the concept before, but I never would have put México on the list of places you need to seriously fear getting a lethal disease in. Which you can, like everywhere else. Already you can get the West Nile virus all the way up in Illinois. I don't know. It seems a little weird to me. I guess I'm used to knowing that that mosquito bite on my arm might possibly be infected with dengue (a nasty viral thing we have in Puerto Rico), but it’s so unlikely no one bothers worrying about it. I've never gotten it. I do know someone who got it three times, though, but that's just bad luck. In México, the only precaution anyone one in my family takes is not to drink the water. Because, oh, yeah, you can get some really horrendous stomach stuff through the water. Again, not in my case, but I wasn't the one who had the horchata (which is a delicious drink, but you might want to have someone prepare it in front of you.

Comments

[everworld2662.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that is strange. When I went to Mexico (a while back, admittedly, when I was living in the States), I didn't get any vaccinations at all. And I was a young kid. This baffles me too.

[guanin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd never heard of anyone in the States getting vaccinated to go to Mexico. This makes no sense to me. Just don't drink non-bottled water and you're done.

[visiblemarket.livejournal.com]

I got a vaccination once I got there once. Because of a throwing up issue. Did that stop me from eating street food in the future? Nooo. Because I am not a fast learner at all. Also, because street food is so tempting.

But then again I also drink the water and go wandering in militia-adjacent jungle places. Man, it's a surprise I'm alive at all.

But you know, the diseases you're likely to catch and build resistance to in England are probably so different to the ones you might catch in Mexico that vaccination makes sense. In the US I'd think it would make a little less, unless you were from, like, Minnesota.

Have they made a big deal about the drug violence, though? Because that's the main discussion going on around here. About whether Spring Breaker college students will be in danger of getting gunned down in Cancun while they're raving drunk and obnoxious.

[guanin.livejournal.com]

I remember getting this really bad indigestion once because of these roasted garbanzos they sell on the street. My dad forbade me from eating them again, but I still wanted to, pain notwithstanding. They were really good garbanzos. I wonder if they still sell them.

At Morole[on, Gto., where my family is from, I drank a sip of tap water every time I brushed my teeth to get the taste of toothpaste off and nothing happened to me. But then in Cancún seven years ago, we had a big family reunion and we went to Xcaret. Everyone who drank horchata got horribly ill. My grandparent's apartment looked like a hospital. But that was also because every single person got sick at some point, though it was mostly run of the mill colds.

Yeah, I did think of that, but is it really a "must" to get a vaccine for typhoid?

I haven't heard anything about that. Best not bring it up now. I already have enough horror stories about el DF as it is. My dad doesn't want me wandering around by myself for a moment.

[visiblemarket.livejournal.com]

Mine was because of the roasted corn they sell...but the thing is, they add cheese! And cream! And not wussy cream, real cream, with, like, 500% fat to it! And then you die because American systems are not meant to deal with that kind of dairy onslaught.

I think in Cancun they're just screwing with everyone. No, probably not. But the thing is, food poisoning is always a problem when it comes to food that sits around in hot climates for long periods of time. I'm not sure how much of it in Mexico is part of this mythical "don't drink the water!" thing, or just people not exercising the kind of common sense you would anywhere else. Because if the water truly was that bad, people would be dropping like flies, and not just tourists.

Probably? I'm trying to remember what typhoid is. Another factor might be that the national health care in the UK makes it a lot less expensive for people to get vaccines, which makes them a lot more willing to be precautious than American counterparts might be. Because honestly, from my quick googling, I wouldn't want to get typhoid.

Mmm, the US State Department just upped the travel warnings. The drug cartels are getting ornery, and I'm going to guess it's mostly because drug demand is down due to the economy...craziness. So they're scrambling for market share and in the drug business that means killing competitors. It really shouldn't be that much of a problem in the DF, though; the drug stuff is mostly in the US-Mexico border towns. In DF you have to look out for kidnappings ;)

[ykoriana.livejournal.com]

I think some of it depends on luck, and some on your natural resistance to viruses and related bugs. I was told to get vaccinated for something (don't remember what) when I went to Tunisia, but I didn't and I'v been there three times and never had any problem.

I love horchata! But it's still to cold to drink it around here (because I really like it ice, ice cold).

[guanin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's true. Though for the dengue thing, there's no vaccine for it as far as I know and it is a big health problem because the government constantly has campaigns to inform people to clear off any spots where water collects, because that's the breeding spot for mosquitoes. But I've never gotten it.

Horchata is so good! But I think I'd have to make it myself, though, because half my family got a really nasty indigestion after drinking it at a really posh place. It wasn't even some random street vendor.