Ottawa to Study Impact of Montezuma’s Revenge

Ottawa to Study Impact of Montezuma’s Revenge
By Andy Blatchford

The Government of Canada plans to spend $55,000 to combat Montezuma’s revenge. The Public Health Agency of Canada has published details of its intention to fight food-borne, gastrointestinal illness in eight Caribbean countries.

Ottawa has put out a tender for researchers who will help analyze data that will measure the impact in the Caribbean — both on residents there and on sun-seeking Canadian tourists.

The malady, spread through contaminated food and water, strikes locals as well as the region’s visitors who commonly know it as traveler’s diarrhea — or “tourista.” The vacation-dampening infection, feared by Canadian snowbirds, can wallop its victims with a host of symptoms, including fever and vomiting.

A lead investigator in the study said researchers will assess the disease’s impact on Caribbean health systems and national economies. Overshadowed by illnesses like cholera and HIV, gastrointestinal illness rarely gets much attention from public health officials in the Caribbean, said Karen Morrison of the University of Guelph.

Montezuma’s revenge, a colloquial term for traveler’s diarrhea, once referred specifically to cases contracted in Mexico. Today, it’s a common name for such illness wherever it strikes in the region.

Canada, which has helped with similar research in Latin America and Cuba, has also been contributing time and expertise to the current project. Canada’s public health agency warns the bacteria, parasites and viruses that cause the disease lurk worldwide, and parts of the Caribbean offer a moderate risk.

The agency says Canadians should take precautions like washing their hands frequently and drinking only purified or bottled water while travelling in the regions where the illness is common. The project, led by the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre, is entering its fourth year and is scheduled to run until at least 2013.