Parasite Question

does anyone know how this person made out and what the parasite was?

oh...and what is mango poisoning? to

some people are allergic to the sap in Mango Trees and may also react badly to contact with the skin of a Mango. It results in a rash, such as from poison oak or manchineel. Eating a mango would make such people very ill, could cause breathing difficulties, shock, etc.

Hey guys,
Sorry for the lack of update. She left STT at the end of April and flew to Washington State where her sister was getting married. She made it back to TX on May 7th and has her first Dr. appt in TX today. She is still having breath problems (sounds like she has a cold settled in her chest) and can't keep a whole lot of food down. She is drinking Ensure to try to keep some weight on her. Since she has been back with her family her attitude about the whole situation has improved. I will update more after she goes to the Dr.

OK. Got the official word this afternoon. Don't shoot the mess anger (PLEASE!!!) I am just repeating what she has told me this afternoon. I am unsure of the long technical name, but what they are saying is it is an amoeba in the water. Something like they have in Mexico, but worse. The Dr.'s told her it effects 3 to 4 out of every 5 people. That if you are going that you should only drink bottled water and boil any water that you cook with.
Now IMHO it sounds like she just got into some bad water somewhere, maybe in a bad cistern or something? I can't see how this could effect 3 to 4 out of 5 people if no one on this board has heard of it.

Anyway - thought I would let everyone know. They put her on antibiotics because her immune system is down due to all the weight loss and told her that it will just have to run it's course. She is to continue drinking Ensure and eat several small meals a day in hopes of keeping some of her food down.

hmmm... maybe the "amoeba" affects 3-4 out of every five people who gets exposed to it but it's rare enough that exposure seldom occurs. Or maybe the doctor had to come up with some kind of diagnosis and figured any mystery ailment from somewhere other than the US Mainland could be classified as a problem with unsanitary drinking water.

I live on a different island (not too far from the USVI's) where the water is generally considered quite good and we rarely, if ever, hear of anyone having "problems" as a result of drinking the water. We have friends, however, who visited us a couple of years ago who both came down with symptoms described in this thread that lasted several months Their doctor believed they had picked up a parasite. Those friends were so sick they won't return to the island.

My husband picked up a nasty parasite in Venezuela, a few years ago, from drinking the water (we think). He was extremely sick. A local lady insisted he go immediately to the hospital. He had to get a kit from the pharmacy to take a "sample" to the lab. When the doctor got the results, he was quite alarmed at the severity of the illness. He diagnosed it as Blastocytosis (I am spelling that phonetically.), which can be mild or severe, and can be quite common, in the mild stage. He put my husband on some type of medicine, (probably an antibiotic). He started to improve almost immediately. It took just a couple of days to be back to normal.

The really amazing part of this story is the entire process, from picking up the kit at the pharmacy to picking up the prescription from the pharmacy, took 4 hours and cost $6.00 US, total, for everything!

wannabe, hope your friend gets better. If they haven't already tested her for Blastocytosis, she might ask.

I think some people are more susceptible than others. I have never gotten sick from drinking water on any of the virgins but I did in Mexico. I didn't drink the water but I ate salads which were washed in water. Hubby didn't get sick at all.