Tap water

[NYCFred]

Maybe it's the difference between villas and the IDF, but one villa stay and 6-7 at the IDF, and the IDF's H2O is fine.....

 

[Eric]

Tim,
We did one ice tray(coded bottled water) for drinks & one ice tray(not bottled) for the cooler.
Eric

 

[Island Visitor]

Bad mojo, man, that dengue fever. It is indeed transmitted by skeeters. It can cause anything from a mild flu-like illness to fatal hemorrhagic consequences. Many cases are very painful and it is also known as "breakbone fever" because of the severe pain in the bones and joints.

I am a bit alarmed at the fact that eight cases have been reported. The life cycle is that a skeeter (Aedes species) bites an infected human and then spreads the disease to other humans through bites. If early cases are closely watched and the skeeter population is controlled, an outbreak can cool off pretty quickly. If not, it can really flare up. Aedes, for the most part, is a daytime biting skeeter so use plenty of DEET during the day.

 

[Island Visitor]

As to skeeter control, yep, been there, done that, for three summers. I drove the spray truck, probably dispensing enough chemicals to turn an ordinary road lizard into Godzilla. And I also treated standing water.

First of all, DONT LET ANY WATER STAND. This includes old tires, paint buckets and just about anything that can hold water. If you do have some standing water that cant be drained, spray a little oil on the top of it. As skeeters grow, they live in water with a 'snorkel' sticking out and the oil clogs that snorkel up and they suffocate. There is also a commercial product that you can drop in the water that kills skeeters.

Check your yards for any sources of standing water, even something as banal as an old pan or pot. If it can hold water, it can hold skeeters.

 

[PBnJ]

You are welcome. Of course, begging the obvious here, you could always just drink bottled water.

Or alcool. Fortunately most stronger spirits kill critters, this being the reason alcool has been in caravans, canteens and cargo ships for several millenia. As The Royal Navy learned in their trips around their vast empire, freshwater spoils, rhum does not.

amen......we drink only bottled water and use bottled water for coffee....we do brush our teeth with tap water.....a case of Capes flat and SanBeneditto sparkling and we are good to go......

Us too, however there was one year that one of the bottled waters we used to make coffe curdled the milk. We used another brand second and it was fine. Known reason? None. And the tap water? One year our shower water was a tad tinted. A slight orange colour. Similar to a light rust. Aint drinking that and I guess I am glad my tetanus was up to date.

 

[Island Visitor]

It may have indeed been rust that colored the water funny. No risk of tetanus in showering or probably even drinking as the organism is an anaerobe and would not grow in water or your stomach. That is why puncture wounds are the most risky, they are not exposed to air and the organism has its favored environment.

 

[Cheri]

Cystitis - bladder infection. Pain on urination, itching, maybe having to pee a lot and then only going in fits and spirts, and fever. Can get septic and die (particularly older women or diabetics or others with immune compromise)

This is exactly what my dear mother had this past August. She had a bladder infection and of course the Dr. prescribed antibiotics. She continued to worsen. I cannot recall the name of what he prescribed but it was not strong enough. She went into Septic shock a couple of days later, 105.7 fever, hallucinating and vomiting blood...we thought she was going to die before the ambulance could arrive. It happened so quickly and it was horrific what she went through. The worst part was that we never even knew what had occurred until she was released from the hospital after almost a week's stay. She was still pretty sick after which she went to a kidney specialist who informed my mother that she had had Sepsis. The other Doc, her General Practitioner had never even bothered to mention this to us. My mother has now switched Docs.

Anyway, very informative discussion here. What I take from it....we will never again drink tap water in St. Barth. We always purchase bottled water but in general we thought the SBH water tasted pretty good so we didn't ever hesitate to brush our teeth or make coffee or ice with it. We won't being doing that anymore after reading all this. Thanks IV.

 

[Island Visitor]

You are welcome. Assuming the patient is not immunocompromised, women are more prone to bladder infections than men due to the shorter urethra which allows the bugs more ready access. The danger is that the bugs set up shop in the bladder and then ascend to the kidney and set up shop there as well, perhaps producing an abscess and sepsis.

This scenario takes a lot of older women out every year.

Drink that cranberry juice ladies - the acidity helps suppress a lot of bugs. Also drink LOTS of water. The more water you have flushing through the bladder, the harder it is for the bugs to set up shop.

 

[MIke R]

Cheri...I lost my best friend and assistant coach to septic shock that was also the result of a routine operation precipitating an infection which wasnt treated properly....once he started spiraling out of control as septic shock set in..there was no getting him back...he died 3 days later....at 46......two weeks to the day after he had dinner with me before he went into the hospital, I was doing his eulogy....your Mom was very lucky

 

[Cheri]

Miker, sorry to hear about your friend. So very unfortunate at such a young age. My mother was very sick for several weeks and she still tires very easily. But yes, we are very lucky that she made it through it. She almost didn't as her blood pressure dropped so low her first night in the hospital, that could have very well been the end. All the while, they kept telling us it was a severe bladder infection. Go figure. It all made more sense after we heard that the bladder infection, which apparently was not treated with strong enough antibiotics (even after she had had it for a week with symptoms continuing to worsen majorly and numerous calls and another visit to the Dr.), had lead to the sepsis. Had I not taken her to the Dr. that afternoon or left her by herself afterwards, we really suspect the worst could have happened. In other words, the septic shock came on so quickly, we suspect the way she was so out of it, she wouldn't have known to call an ambulance.

But we digress. Glad to have been educated on the SBH water situation. As with the above, foresight is better than hindsight.

 

[andynap]

Many years ago, my sister rented a cottage on Lake Kashawackamack in Eastern Ontario Province, Canada. The drinking water was really thick- I followed the water line down to the lake and voila- we were drinking lake water. No way Jose. So I got into the outboard and chugged across the lake and bought all the bottled water the country store had. Been doing that ever since whenever we go out of the country. No one ever told me about the water in Barts but I buy bottled water by the case as soon as I hit Match. Glad I was right once.

 

[Island Visitor]

I would think that true city water is okay. Reverse osmosis will remove the salt and many of the impurities. After that, they almost certainly put some kind of anti-bug treatment in it. So, "city water" is probably fine. I know of no reason it would not be.

Cistern water is another story.

I was once trekking through the desert of mexico with a bunch of ten year olds. For some reason, the mother of one of the ten year olds thought this would be a good idea. So we walked to the edge of town and into the hills. After several hours, everyone was whining about being thirsty. We came upon an aquaduct with slime in the areas where the water was stagnant but otherwise fairly briskly flowing water. The kids all took a sip, claiming to have done that many times before. Not me.

The kids did fine. Having not partaken of The Waters, I did okay that day as well. However, something else during the five weeks I was in the country "disagreed" with my constitution. I have also been admitted to hospital one time for food poisoning. I have a VERY healthy respect for the fact that different bugs grow in different parts of the world. That which the native can consume with impunity can put visitors under.

So, for those who think bottled water is too Foo Foo, let me say this: Spend several days in a hospital praying for death and Foo Foo looks VERY good.

 

[claudia]

IV, Sadly, many cases of dengue fever go unreported on the island.In december 2001, Pierre Verdier, the manager at the Filao was very ill with dengue.He was slowly recuperating.When we returned to SBH in March friends of ours who were long time vistors to SBH shared a cottage with us.Less than one week after the 47 year old man returned home, he came down with what turned out to be dengue fever, but did not see the doctor.Less than 1 week later, he died from the ravages of the disease.The CDC confirmed dengue.He was from all indications a very healthy man prior to being infected with dengue on SBH.In any tropical location, dengue can arrive at any time, as soon as someone infected arrives on the island.There was an outbreak on the island of Lanai in 2001 traced to a gourp of schoolgirls reutrning from a trip to Shanghai.It's very hard to control.

 

[jhaney]

I got one...We bought bottled water that said said it contained Magnesium. I did not think anything thing of it until two days into the trip when I woke up needing some water took a long pull off an ice cold bottle of water and found it completely unrefreshing...Bought another brand w/o magnesium and it was great.

So IV, the water and bug man, why is water with a high magnesium content not refreshing and why is it sold and marketed that it has magnesium?

I have only seen it at match across from the airport.

 

[Island Visitor]

Some people are indeed magnesium deficient and this is felt by some to contribute to osteoporosis as well as atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. I dont know.

Other people feel it gives them more energy.

If you eat a good diet and take a vitamen pill, you are probably fine to forego the magnesium water. I like the pure stuff myself.

 

[PBnJ]

IV, what a wealth of knowledge. Thanks.