Hygiene

Good hygiene can help you avoid many potential health problems. Here, we have listed a few useful tips for you.

Wash your hands with soap and water after every visit to the toilet and before preparing any food. Wash your hands before your meal and after every possible contact with materials that might in some way be contaminated. Disinfectant lotions are also recommended.

If you have any wounds make sure that they are properly disinfected and bandaged to keep them clean. For larger or contaminated wounds, and for animal bites or scratches, always see a doctor.

Do not prepare food if you are suffering from diarrhoea.

Do not eat raw salads or raw vegetables. Both the ingredients themselves or the water in which they were rinsed might be contaminated.

Do not eat fruit that has already been cut or peeled. Always peel your own fruit and use a clean knife to do so. Or wash your fruit with mineralwater.

Meat, poultry, fish, crustaceans/molluscs and products containing eggs should always be heated up properly and thoroughly cooked just before eating them. NEVER eat these products raw or semi cooked.

Locally made (scooped) ice cream is a well-known source of food poisoning. Pre-packed proprietary brand ice cream is safe to eat, providing the wrapping is still intact when you buy it.

Dairy products bought from local shops or from roadside stalls should not be trusted.

If it cannot be guaranteed that drinking water is reliable, do not drink it or use it for cleaning your teeth and so on. If you buy bottled water make sure the original bottle top is still on the bottle and that is has not already been opened. In some areas refilling bottles with untrustworthy water and reselling them is a lucrative business.

Ice cubes that have been made from untrustworthy water are themselves untrustworthy (the bacteria that can make you ill is frozen but not killed). Therefore, if you have any reason to suspect the drinking water, do not accept ice cubes made from it either.

Food can perish very quickly in tropical regions. Therefore, don’t cook food too long before eating it and don’t leave it out of the fridge for long either. After preparation all food must be properly covered to protect it from insects. Finely cut food, raw fish and molluscs/gastropods are particularly susceptible to perishing.