[pct-l] Sanitation

[Ellen Shopes]

Ok, sort of right...you don't have to worry about getting sick from your own E. coli.  But you do need to think about other sources of microbes you have picked up on your hands (from dirt, animals, water, shelters, etc.).  Having said that, it is also true that many pathogens do not survive well outside a warm, moist body; probably the worst danger is hiker to hiker transmission.  I know of a Colorado River trip in which the cook (who was coming down with Hepatitis A) transmitted it to many of the clients.

Which leads me to a water story (even though I know I won't change anybody's opinion about how they treat water)...A friend of mine (who was a Ranger in the Tetons) got giardia from drinking water running straight out of a glacier.  You'd be surprised what critters do their duty on snowfields.  I think it would be prudent if people plan on not treating their water, that they carry a course of antibiotics with them to treat the bad stuff should it occur.  

How many hikers think about keeping their Tetanus vaccination up-to-date? 
How many worry about getting Valley Fever from the desert soils?
Let's get a bit of paranoia going...

Ellen
(the worrier)



basically, can you get sick from
accidentally eating trace amounts of your *own* poop because you didn't
sanitize your hands after going to the bathroom?