Have you gotten a disease or been poisoned while cruising?

[Benz]

Originally Posted by GordMay

You're kidding, right?
➥ https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3251105

Of course.

[Nicholson58]

Possibly Zica three years ago in the BVI. Certainly not devastating. Overly tired for a couple weeks. Accidental small coral scratches a couple times diving. Treat immediately with alcohol and Polysporin. They do take a while to heal.

Mostly, cruisers do not get sick. We have been naturally quarantining all along. None of our group have had so much as a cold. There are rare exceptions. A couple died of Covid last year after visiting Montserrat’s Irish carnival before any of us knew what was happening. We attended four days of carnival in Fort DeFrance before the crazy started. I consider us lucky but we did hang out on the edges.

Extra careful now regarding Covid. The other normal stuff we do not worry about. Don’t touch the plants, corals, animals, strays. Don’t eat stuff you don’t know about. Wear your mosquito deet. (Mostly knees and lower. The buggers are very low flying). Mind the spines on Lion fish.

Don’t be paranoid, have fun.

[Wckoek]

Gotten sick with dengue once, I would say it is a luck thing despite you can decrease the risk by getting rid of standing water etc.

Impossible to avoid getting stung by mosquitoes in the tropics especially outdoors, you just get it if you are unlucky.

[gonesail]

Dengue Fever is now spreading in South Florida so you don't need to leave the U.S. to experience it. West Nile virus is also active

[s/v Jedi]

Obviously after sensational disaster stories because I guess they sell better. We had some issues and helped countless other cruisers and locals. From an antibiotic for a coral cut to hospital transport for snake bite and heart problems. You prep by bringing the medical emergency gear incl. antibiotics, dental kits and if possible some “happy pills” in case it’s bad. Then do what you can when needed and hope for the best otherwise.

It’s the same for all other danger situations that cruisers are more exposed to than landlubbers. Sickness, accidents, fire, gas explosion, bad guys, sinking etc.

[RobPatterson]

My wife got sick while we were getting some work done on our boat in Mazatlan. She recieved excellent care for what was diagnosed as salmonella-typhi.
She also had excellent care in Golfito, Costa Rica for a drug resistant UTI. The cost was about what US insurance premiums would have been for 2months.

[dblk65]

I had a most edifying relationship with a stomach parasite whilst on a sail sabbatical in the mid 2000's. As I had recently dropped out of polite society I had also dropped my US based, employer provided health insurance to an ungodly high-deductible emergency-only plan. This just prior to the Obamacare kerfuffle that continues to keep much of America so apopleptically pliable.

I had made my way down the East coast of Mexico, Belize, dabbled in Honduras and ended up wakeboarding downstream of Fronteras on the Rio Dulce Guatemala. Never swim downstream of Fronteras. It's a fairly obvious conclusion that any sane sort would come to immediately.

Sadly, several days later I could come to no other conclusion then that i'd contracted a stomach parasite. I'll leave the specifics out. After a bit of local query I made my way to a local Dr who's name escapes me these many years later. I entered a cluttered basement office just off the busy main road. Discussed my issue in my limited and inept Spanish and was asked to return with a sample which would have to be sent by bus to a nearby lab. A day or so later I was given a prescription and an invoice. Maybe 15.00 dollars all in. Another couple days and I was right as rain...(and ripped as I'd lost significant pounds in the process).

This, my first cruising medical event, became an effective and defining counterpoint as that Christmas while visiting home for the holidays I decided to see my Primary Care Physician for a simple checkup. Now self-insured living on savings and with no-copay to hide the fees behind, I was pretty darn shocked by the $380 for a temperature check bloodpressure and discussion.

In Guatemala, 15 Bucks covered Dr's fees, lab work, remedy AND some poor soul carrying my poo by bus to Puerto Morales for testing.

But the "greatest healthcare system on the planet" can't pull off a wellness check for anything close to reasonable?
This anecdotal experience, surely oft repeated by cruisers everywhere, has forever opened my eyes. Note that I do not write this as an indictment of the quality and capability of the stateside medical industry but as a full throated indictment of the for-profit insurance system that stands between humanity and healthcare in the US. The same system that has spent decades aggressively lobbying politicians and misinforming the public. It is truly mind numbing That my country can be so easily waylaid by flim flammery that any attempt at improvement, any alteration of the status quo can so easily distort into a battle of the very definition of freedom...and this even in the sanity of a pre trump America.

For those US citizens of out there cruising...I'm not sure I can recommend coming back...
But I definitely recommend NEVER swimming downstream of Fronteras...

[Bycrick]

In 40 years, I’ve managed to have infected insect bites in Ecuador, Peru and worst by far in Tahiti. A pulled muscle in Costa Rica. An uncomfortable jelly fish sting in Western Panama. The usual coral and other scratches that responded well, if slowly, to antibiotics. Nothing serious. And never a case of food problems in spite of shopping the local markets and eating street food everywhere.

[roverhi]

I had a persistent Staph infection on my knee that was with me for more than 6 months. Antibiotics would knock it back to pimple size but it would flare up to a boil sometime after finishing the drug regimen. Walking down the Quai in Papeete a guy who turned out to be a cruising MD stopped me seeing the sore on my leg. He said to wash it with a weak bleach solution. Went back to the boat and used the bleach solution for about a week. The infection disappeared in short order and never returned.

Talking with another sailor the other day he brought up how dangerous these infections can be. He had a similar situation and ended up with a major infection that blew up on a two day coastal cruise and put him in the hospital.

[Zzmeyer]

A couple years back anchored at Chacala, a bit north of Puerto Vallarta, after a swim in the bay I got a fungal infection in both eyes and went blind. During the 50 mile sail back to Nuevo Vallarta we made plans to fly me home to California. One of the crew members mentioned a hospital near the marina. Immediately after docking we went to the ER. $150 and an expert diagnosis and medication I was on my way to recovery. A couple days later I was fine. Something in the water? Probably.

[Marathon1150]

Originally Posted by Benz

DM me if you want more details.
While these events are not highlights, they are realities of cruising, and everyone who would cruise should know that these are risks you must take, and also that the risk is worth the reward. Giving people a healthy expectation of what cruising entails is not a bad thing at all.

Agree strongly with this comment.

I managed to contract dengue in Papeete last year within a few weeks of arrival. We were aware that there was a dengue epidemic and that some mega yachts were skipping the opportunity to stop there (a disappointed mega yacht crew member that we met in Nuku Hiva told us the captain was skipping Tahiti because of dengue).

My experience with dengue was not good and there isn't much that can be done about it beyond maintaining hydration and the use of fever and pain reducing drugs. But dengue was not as bad as when I had typhoid when we lived in Indonesia. Fortunately there are (or at least were) effective antibiotics for the latter.

Sailing is a somewhat risky sport compared to say, golf (the risk of lightening strike not withstanding). Travelling to new and foreign lands also provides exposure to new health and other risks. But as noted, its part of the adventure and being prepared is a good idea. And, because insurance on my boat costs less than insurance for my car, I know that actuaries have calculated that driving a car is riskier than sailing a boat.

Oh, and my wife broke her knee falling on the dock in Mexico. This delayed our departure for the South Pacific by a year and introduced us to the high quality medical care available in Mexico.

[richardhc]

I'd like to thank all of you who have replied to this forum topic. If you'd like to read my Noonsite posting on how to stay healthy while cruising, please visit:
https://www.noonsite.com/report/insi...hile-cruising/
It could save you from some very unpleasant experiences while cruising.

[Juggerknot]

One should carry a full medical emergency kit that can get you through most common issues. While not much hope for dengue or chikungunya, for dysentery, food poisoning and the common infections, scrapes and bumps you'll be covered. I had to fly back to the states one trip after I got a bad staff infection from a tiny scrape in the jungle, healed up and flew right back a week later. After that however, I stocked up on 1st world antibiotics and other commonly used remedies and rotate em out to keep fresh. Cheap insurance when you are out in the middle of nowhere with no help on the horizon.