Traveller’s diarrhea prevention while travelling
So prior to my trip last summer, I made sure I went to the doctor…got my annual check up and then I asked him if I needed to get any shots prior to heading out to Asia and in particular South East Asia. I asked about the Malaria thing but even with my research online, it really wasn’t necessary unless you were doing some crazy trekking. I knew Jia and I would only be trekking for one day so the doctor confirmed that it was pretty overkill. Not worth the side effects. What my doctor did recommend was this thing called Dukoral. I had no idea what the heck it was for…
What is Dukoral?
So you guys might be wondering the same thing so I figured i’d explain this piece first. What exactly is Dukoral?
In a nutshell, it’s simply a vaccine you take prior to your travels to help prevent traveller’s diarrhea and cholera while you’re travelling. Traveller’s diarrhea is typically caused by E. Coli.
These are the countries that are known to have cholera cases in the past 10 years.
Countries considered high risk by Dukoral.
From C.Health Canoe
This vaccine works by introducing very small amounts of dead cholera bacteria and nontoxic components of cholera toxin into the body. This allows the body to make antibodies against the bacteria and toxin so that if the bacteria does get into the body and produce the toxin, they are immediately attacked by the body’s own defense system. The cholera toxin is very similar to the toxin produced by ETEC, the bacteria that causes most cases of traveller’s diarrhea. Therefore, the body’s defenses against cholera toxin will also work against the ETEC toxin. It generally takes one week after finishing the first course of immunization for the body’s defenses to develop protection against the bacteria.
This is obviously only available if your doctor writes a prescription for you and you have to consider whether your insurance will cover something like this. Luckily the company I worked with at the time covered 100% of this.
The way it works is you have to take this 2 weeks prior to the start of your travels and is good for 3 months of protection. What I liked about taking Dukoral was that it was extremely easy and was something you could do yourself. A full immunization requires 2 doses taken 1 week apart, with the last dose taken at least 1 week before travel. It comes with a sachet of some powder that looked like Kool-Aid except white and you just mixed it into water. It would fizz up and you drank it just like that. To me it tasted like Gin & Tonic (no disrespect to those Gin & Tonic lovers out there).
The official Dukoral website can be found here.
Was it Effective?
Now this is a bit hard for me to say. I was travelling throughout Asia for 3 months. Check out everywhere I went last summer.
The end result of my travels for 3 months? I never had any stomach issues at all throughout that whole time.
Now this could totally mean that I was lucky and never encountered any bad foods to give me diarrhea but part of me feels like Dukoral may have helped me more than I know. I was definitely not shy about eating street foods all around and was never extremely cautious so that’s gotta say something about the effectiveness of Dukoral.
The only story I can somewhat back up the effectiveness of Dukoral was how I didn’t take Dukoral and got some sort of food poisoning from my trip to Korea earlier this year in February.
I know that’s not really conclusive evidence but I say, why not reduce the chances of getting traveller’s diarrhea if you can?
Conclusion
Thumbs up for Dukoral. If you’re going to a country that is considered high risk and you’re going for 2 weeks or more, just take it. You might as well get yourself covered.
Whether you take Dukoral or not, you should also consider taking an antibiotic with you on your trip in case you get traveller s diarrhea.
That’s a really good tip! For my trip to Ethiopia, I took Dukoral before the trip BUT it didn’t prevent issues happening later. Luckily I had Cipro which is that antibiotic you’re talking about.
Less than 24 hours after taking the first dose I have experienced both abdominal pain and diarrhea. I hope it doesn’t last long and I hope it actually protects me when on vacation because so far the cure is worse than the disease.
I think it probably was the vaccine. I am from Canada, but moved to China. I am pretty careful and still get stomache issues weekly. I don’t seem to be building an immunity either. Planning on going home for a visit in January and taking the vaccine then.
Hi I used Ducoral in Dec. .2015 more than week before trip I took last dose and 2 days before trip I am getting sick .
Stomach pain and visit to toilet like 6 times already
I went to doctor and he told me no food for 12 h. Should I go on that vacation if I am sick even before trip.
I really regret this product . Never again !
Hey Chris, really sorry to hear about your troubles! Honestly even for me, it’s hard to say if Dukoral is effective or not. I took it again for my trip to Peru and while I was good for most of it, I still had trouble along the Inca Trail. That being said, it could’ve covered me for cholera in Lima/Cusco but could’ve been something else while trekking. I think the biggest thing to note is that this certainly isn’t full protection.
I’m also wondering if you had a reaction to the vaccine when you took it? It’s definitely not normal to get sick from it prior to travelling.
From Canada. Four months in northern Thailand last yeast. Mostly Chiang Mai with trips to Lisu tribal villages deep into the mountains north west of Chiang Dao. Took the two doses of Dukoral before I flew to Thailand. Never got sick even though eating mostly from street food vendors, and tribal food in the villages. (Villages were not “tourist” villages. I was the only westerner there. No souvenir sellers, lived with a family in their home. Had no ideal what I was eating during their Lisu New Year feast.)
Never got sick. Dukoral is supposed to protect against E choli for three months, and against Cholera for two years. But I think it only gives about 80% protection. However, even for those who still get sick, it might be not as bad as for someone who did not take Dukor. And it doesn’t protect against all thing that give you “Delhi Belly”.
But 80% protection is good enough for me. That puts the odds in my favor. I’ll take it before trips to that part of the world each time. It’s better than not taking it and having no protection at all .
Have happy, safe travels.
Hey Robert, thanks so much for your detailed comments. My experience was very similar to you and you’re right, 80% protection is enough for most people and puts the odds in our favor 🙂 Sounds like one epic trip you went on!
didnt work for me!
Hey thanks for the comment! Would love to hear your story. What happened??