GERM
00:00:09.920 – 00:00:11.120
Ayubowan! My name is Germ.

WORM
00:00:11.360 – 00:00:12.240
I’m Worm.

GERM
00:00:12.560 – 00:00:28.750
Welcome to episode 85 of the Germ and Worm Travel Health Podcast. Hotel Health how to Avoid Hotel Hell It’s a big planet. See it in Good Health. I’m Dr. Paul Pottinger, also known as Germ. I’m a professor of Infectious diseases and at the University of Washington in Seattle.

WORM
00:00:29.230 – 00:00:37.390
I’m Dr. Chris Sanford, also known as Worm, Associate professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Global Health, also at the University of Washington.

GERM
00:00:37.710 – 00:01:32.400
Okay Chris, we have received so many questions over the last couple of years from our listeners. All kinds of questions about how to stay safe and healthy in a hotel. And we’ve put them all together. This is the supercut Hotel Hell: How to avoid it?

Questions include bedbugs, how to sniff them out, drinking safely at the bar, can it be done? Laundry: How gross can it get? And carbon monoxide and other toxins in the hotel: How can we avoid them?

As a reminder to our listeners, please contact us with your travel health questions, stories, your tips for success, or requests for clarification. Just Visit our website germandworm.com or send us an email germandworm@gmail.com

Before we jump in our medical disclaimer.This podcast is designed to inform, inspire and entertain. However, you should not use this podcast as clinical care before you travel. Please see a qualified healthcare professional for recommendations specific to you and your itinerary.

WORM
00:01:32.720 – 00:01:41.840
Paul start us off. Suppose I’m checking into a hotel and I deeply do not want to be chewed on by bedbugs. Give me please a few strategies.

GERM
00:01:42.240 – 00:04:42.300
Yeah, and you really don’t want to be chewed on by bedbugs. The the Latin name is Simex laticularis. You can call them bed bugs. So that’s what they are.

They do love to live in beds, especially the seams where the mattress is se they like those folds and seams of the mattress of beds. They can be in any kind of textile surface. That includes carpeting, it includes drapes, even upholstery on furniture.

Any kind of cloth covered surface can be home to them.

And they’re nasty because although they don’t usually spread infection to you, they do like to suck your blood and when they do that they use a little bit of saliva. I don’t know if it lubricates the bite site or anesthetizes it. Whatever it is, there are some chemicals in the saliva of the bed bug.

It can cause a huge annoying nasty ass local allergic reaction which is painful and causes tremendous itching and you will look awful on your beautiful Caribbean vacation or whatever it’s going to be. So you’ve asked for how to avoid these, these guys.

Number one, you cannot unfortunately tell if you’re likely to get bitten by just looking at the hotel from the outside. These bugs can get into the finest, most high end hotel you could imagine. I’ve seen that happen myself.

So although some places might look so called flea ridden in, these are not fleas. It’s like that, but you can’t always tell by the outside. So you have to always be bedbug aware.

Number two, if you really are worried about this, and you might be, it is totally okay to take the sheets, the fitted sheet or whatever kind of fitted sheet they have off the mattress and look at the mattress itself. If you see brown stains, first of all, that’s nasty in general.

Second of all, that may be dried blood, which is the feces coming out of the buttholes of these bedbugs from the previous victims who stayed there before. So you want to have a clean looking mattress, obviously. Supposedly they really do smell like crushed coriander.

If you know what coriander smells like, they can have that similar scent. So you walk into a room and it smells like somebody’s been cooking coriander. That may not be a good sign. Check out the mattresses for sure.

You can protect yourself by keeping of upholstered surfaces. So what you really do not want to do is bring these sons of bitches home with you.

So if you have a duffel bag, garment bag, or just one of those four wheeled hard sided suitcases, keep them on a solid surface, the top of a dresser, even roll them into the bathroom if you have to. Very unlikely that a bed bug would get into your bag from there.

Whereas on the other hand, if you lay those things out on the bed and leave them there, including overnight, they may very well try to hitch a ride. So that’s something else to look out for if this does happen. You’re not infected, you just have been assaulted by these bugs.

See your doctor, get some topical antihistamines, topical corticosteroids to calm down the itching and the annoyance, and you’ll probably leave them a nasty review on Yelp or whatever people do nowadays. Chris, what’s your thoughts about bed bugs?

WORM
00:04:42.300 – 00:05:17.240
Yeah, agree. And also let me make the point that it’s a myth that this only happens in low income countries.

I’ve only been chewed on once by bedbugs and actually it was in London and at a fairly nice bed and breakfast. As you say, if you do get these itchy welt type things on your body from bedbugs. You don’t need an antibiotic.

They’re going to go away of their own accord. And basically treatment is just symptomatic.

So something like a topical steroid like hydrocortisone cream, maybe some Benadryl, either topical or by mouth will help with the itching. But you kind of just have to wait till these things go away of their own accord.

GERM
00:05:19.850 – 00:05:31.130
So here’s another question that we get frequently and we’re bringing it back for that reason. People are curious about the ice machines. Chris, is it possible to get ice from the hotel ice machine without getting diarrhea?

WORM
00:05:31.530 – 00:06:23.340
Let’s talk a little bit about that on one hand, on the sort of don’t worry about it hand. I’m not aware of reading about big outbreaks that have been traced to ice machines. On the other hand, they do get slime after a while.

And, and there’s a misconception that freezing will kill germs. But most things that can give you diarrhea are not killed by freezing. So there certainly can be pathogens in there.

And sometimes the ice just sits for a long time and it gets kind of rounded and slimy and multiple hands are touching that bucket. And so is there potential for diarrheal disease? Yes. What should you do? I tend to shy away from the machine.

Nobody wants to get diarrhea and anything you can do to bring your risk down is a good thing. So in general and certain low income countries, I just have my beverage at room temperature and forego the ice. Paul, what do you do?

GERM
00:06:23.340 – 00:06:57.440
I mean, first of all, I’m not an ice guy. I just am not an ice guy married to someone who is passionately in love with ice. So I do have to think about it on her behalf.

This is one of those that I don’t think it’s necessarily very dangerous, but it’s just nasty. It’s just a nasty thing. And so I like the idea of if you’re going to use hotel ice, which is a minimal risk, get look at the machine.

If it looks slimy, don’t use that ice. And if it does look good, I just try to reach, you know, for the surface of the ice that’s just most recently there.

The other stuff may have been there for a long time and I just don’t like the sound of that. But I cannot point you to an example where I think it’s made one of my patients sick.

WORM
00:07:01.440 – 00:07:17.320
And now, Paul, let’s talk a little bit about laundry. Suppose I check into a hotel room and I’m not sure if the sheets and the towels have been cleaned since the previous occupant. Is that an issue?

And related question, can I catch the clap from a toilet seat?

GERM
00:07:18.440 – 00:10:08.490
Those are two totally different things, but I like it. Let’s put them together. That’s really good. So the question of laundry, I think is a really good one because.

So first of all, you asked, how can I tell if something is clean from the previous inhabitant of that room? I don’t know what to say. If the laundry doesn’t look and smell fresh, it may not have been changed. You should ask the hotel about that.

I think that’s less commonly an issue. What I see more often is people who say, hey, I don’t want to have my carbon footprint go up.

How long can I use my own towel without having to have it become nasty? How often should I have my own laundry done? You know, every hotel really wants to do this. You’ll see those plaques when you walk into a hotel.

If you want to keep the towel, hang it up. If you want it laundered, throw it on the floor or put it in the tub or something like that.

So I really appreciate that they’re trying to reduce the amount of energy that goes into laundry because that energy amount is huge, huge on a global basis, even for one big hotel. So thanks for thinking about this. Generally speaking, I would not want to rub my body with somebody else’s towel, especially a stranger.

Again, falls into the category of nasty, although relatively low risk. Are there infections you could catch that way? Yeah, certain bacteria that like our skin, including staph aureus and strep pyogenes.

Staph and strep, they can be spread that way. There are certain viruses, especially the epidemic form of keratoconjunctivitis that’s pink eyed due to adenovirus.

Yeah, that’s a great way to catch it, but those are exceptional. And if the previous occupants, sheets and towels have gone through the laundry, you’re fine.

These germs are extremely unlikely to survive a commercial or a home laundry system for your own body. How often do you have to do the laundry before it makes you sick? You know, that’s just probably not a thing.

And I would say it’s true that you will eventually transfer germs from the surface of your skin onto the towel. They could theoretically come back onto your skin. But if it’s your own towel, then what’s the big deal?

By sheer coincidence, my YouTube feed popped up on this exact question a few weeks ago. Some lovely microbiologist, I don’t remember who she was, she did this in her own N of one experiment at home.

She found that up to 10 days of using that same towel in her own bathroom on her own body. After 10 days, eventually she started getting significant colony counts off the towel. But before that there wasn’t much.

And I would even say that at 10 days, those are your own germs. The chance of making yourself sick from your own germ is very unusual.

If you happen to be fighting a staph or strep infection, that’s different, that’s one and done. Send it to the laundry and feel great about that. Otherwise, for most people, they really can hang up the towel and feel great about that.

If it starts to smell bad, then that’s a cosmetic thing, but not so much a safety thing.

WORM
00:10:08.650 – 00:10:35.340
Yeah. Another thing you can catch from used bedding is scabies. And that’s a really itchy skin condition.

It actually is these tiny little mites that burrow into your skin. And you’re not going to get this in all likelihood at an upper end hotel where they clean the sheets routinely.

But if you’re at, say a budget hostel and you’re in a sleeping bag that hasn’t been cleaned and it’s been used by multiple people before you, then you’re at risk for this rather itchy infestation.

GERM
00:10:35.980 – 00:11:44.870
You also asked me about STDs. Can you catch it from touching a towel sitting on the toilet seat? I mean, basically the answer is no.

I mean, there’s a theoretical possibility that you might somehow be able to pick up a viral infection. If the person who touched a solid surface had an open lesion and you sat down on a toilet seat from somebody who just burst a herpes vesicle.

I mean, I guess it could happen, but it’s not a thing that is usually person to person, contact to contact, skin to skin, mucosa to mucosa. The fomite or inanimate object of a doorknob, a toilet seat, a towel. Much, much less likely to do so.

In fact, so much less that we basically say we just say no. Chris has a question to you. Actually. Let’s take this together. But I want to talk about personal safety and how to protect ourselves when we travel.

Your thoughts about you’re more of an adventurous traveler than I am. You stayed in more hostels, I think, than I have. Tell me about staying in hostels. What do you look for in order to Have a safe experience.

WORM
00:11:45.430 – 00:12:45.620
Well, first, hostels have a lot of advantages. One, you save money, another is you meet more people.

Some of the least satisfying trips I’ve taken is when I’ve spent the most money and I’ve had a room by myself and I’ve met nobody and it’s been really boring. Whereas some friends, some of whom I’m still in touch with, I’ve met in hostels. One drawback though, is security can be subpar.

One thing I do try to do when I stay in a hostel is keep really important stuff with me. So, for example, my passport doesn’t tend to leave my body. It’s a huge hassle if you lose that. Or my credit cards tend not to leave my body.

Just be aware that if you leave your clothing, other stuff at your hostel, depending on their security, there’s some chance for ripoff staying with the family.

On the other hand, nothing is a guarantee, but I think that’s generally very safe, especially if it’s something like an Airbnb and there’s reviews that are good. That’s pretty reassuring. What’s your take, Paul?

GERM
00:12:46.480 – 00:15:13.720
I feel the same way.

And you know, it seems to me that if you are, when’s the time that someone’s going to be most concerned about safety, it would be in nighttime that they’re asleep and someone enters a room. So I do think that the ability to secure a door can provide tremendous, not only sense of security, but security.

So that’s something to think about that’s not necessary or right for everyone, but it’s something to consider. If you’re worried about intrusions in the night, then be honest with yourself about that and know that that might be a feature you’re looking for.

Love the idea of family stays. That just has to be vetted properly, obviously through a trusted source that this is a great place to go and stay.

And, you know, there’s so many other potential concerns for scams and rip offs that we talk about. Should I use my credit card or do I only pay with cash at a, at a hotel? You know, I worry about cash getting stolen when I’m on the street.

I am a big credit card user because, you know, ultimately if that number gets out or someone copies it down, you know, it’s the credit card company that’s on the hook for that, not for me. So I actually think credit card safety is relatively okay and that is something that I’ll do when possible. When I’m, when I’m overseas.

I’m not against cash, but I Think that the certain advantage to using the credit card as well. You know, there’s something else to think about, a question that’s come up for us, Chris. It’s along similar lines. What about the safety of the room?

I mean, the room itself. There are terrible stories about families or guests who have died of exposures to toxins.

We assume that these are organophosphates, which are insecticides that are sometimes sprayed in rooms. Why would that happen? Because there’s a bedbug infestation or cockroaches.

So, you know, there are plenty of insecticides that can be used safely and appropriately without any health concerns to humans, but not always.

And there are a handful, you may know of, some others that I don’t, Chris, but a handful of these very horrible stories where people have gone into a room and died just by touching the walls because there’s a residual amount of a very toxic, high concentration of insecticides. These are rare. Raising this just to say, I would not let that put you off of international travel. These are extremely rare episodes.

There’s an episode where this happened apparently in Sri Lanka. Now I’m planning to visit. Visit Sri Lanka with my wife in a couple months. We’re excited about it.

I’m not going to worry about the organophosphate piece. So to me, this is something that is horrible, regrettable, and. And crazy rare. Is that your sense, too?

WORM
00:15:14.120 – 00:15:26.120
Yeah, that’s. I. There are so many potential things that can happen both at home and when you travel. You can’t worry about all of them.

I tend to worry about the more common ones. And this insecticide thing doesn’t make my list.

GERM
00:15:26.440 – 00:15:53.550
I would say that if you’re staying in a hotel room and you and other people in the room are starting to feel sick, you can keep it on the agenda that it’s possible that the room may be making you ill. Leave the room, go to the lobby, figure it out and talk about it. When I hear about a group of people feeling sick in a room, I actually don’t worry as much about insecticides. I do worry about carbon monoxide.

Let’s talk about that.

WORM
00:15:53.870 – 00:17:15.280
Yeah, carbon monoxide. So when you burn something like a fuel for a heater, it puts off this colorless, odorless gas called carbon monoxide.

And it’s a big deal because basically at high concentrations, it can be fatal. It binds to your hemoglobin in your blood with greater affinity than does oxygen. So you don’t get enough oxygen, which is a bad thing.

It’s rare, but there are cases Often when people will put a heater like it’s burning gasoline or diesel or something else to heat up the room, they’ll put it indoors or they’ll run a car in a garage and they will be a leak of the emissions into the house and that can lead into fatality. So a few things to consider doing.

One, they’re actually, well, at your home where you live, you should have a carbon monoxide detector, maybe several. One on each level, one near where you sleep just in case there’s an unexpected leak.

But also, and I was just checking this out on Amazon, there’s a ton of carbon monoxide detectors and they’re fairly inexpensive, they’re fairly accurate that you can take with you. And that is a reasonable thing to do just to make sure you’re not being exposed when you travel. Make sure that it’s a good one.

It should be UL 2034 certified in the US and there’s other countries have different levels of certification, but I think that’s a reasonable do just to make sure you’re not being exposed. Yeah.

GERM
00:17:15.280 – 00:17:46.229
Thanks for raising the topic of carbon monoxide. You know, for us here in Washington State, it seems like every year we have people who die this way. Not in a hotel, but in their home.

There’s a power cut and this is the way that they decide to heat their home by turning on the stove or bringing in a barbecue to the home. You would think that people would know not to do this. This often happens for people coming from parts of the world where it may be more customary.

It’s dangerous, especially in these well sealed homes that we have. So thanks for raising this topic, Chris. I appreciate that.

WORM
00:17:46.389 – 00:18:05.560
Sure. And also what to do if your alarm goes off. Whether you’re traveling or at home.

If your carbon monoxide alarm goes off, don’t wait until you feel crummy.

The first thing you do is get out into an open area, alert emergency services, and don’t go back into the space where the alarm went off until you’re told by the professionals that it’s okay to do so.

GERM
00:18:05.880 – 00:18:16.730
This is something that doctors miss. This actually appears on our internal medicine boards every single time. We really should do a better job as healthcare providers to recognize this.

So let’s raise everybody’s consciousness and awareness about it.

WORM
00:18:17.050 – 00:18:47.900
Another thought for credit cards, one thing to do, and this applies both to domestic and foreign travel, is have a protocol of what you’re going to do if your entire wallet or purse goes missing. What you do is you need to call your credit card companies and let them know.

But if all the phone numbers are on the back of the credit cards, which are in the pocket of the thief, that’s hard to do. So I have a little protocol. I email it to myself.

I also have a piece of paper that I carry that has the phone numbers that I have to notify should my credit cards go missing.

GERM
00:18:48.060 – 00:18:50.700
That’s a really smart idea. Thanks for that tip. I’m going to do that.

WORM
00:19:00.460 – 00:19:07.980
Paul, a lot of us take taxis or ride services when we travel. Any thoughts for doing that safely?

GERM
00:19:08.570 – 00:19:51.060
I mean, there’s probably a lot of thoughts about this. I don’t worry about this too much myself. I think most taxi drivers are honorable people. They’re just doing their business.

I think, especially if I were a woman, if I were traveling alone, one added layer of security that someone could consider would be to have the hotel call a car for them. That way, the hotel is sharing some of the responsibility for. For that experience.

In my own experience, hotels often have a number of taxi drivers or car services that they rely upon that they know are decent and professional. And that’s one simple thing that you could consider doing. What do you think, Chris?

WORM
00:19:51.460 – 00:20:11.930
Yeah, I agree. I’ve had primarily very positive taxi experiences.

Another thing that adds a level of security is to call a ride service such as Bolt in Europe or Uber in the United States or even this new one, Waymo, where there’s no driver, and those give you the license plate of the car that’s going to come pick you up, and that adds additional security.

GERM
00:20:19.530 – 00:20:32.280
Chris, do you have any pragmatic tips for people who are traveling? What should they expect the hotel to provide for them in terms of amenities, Things that you have found have been helpful to you when.

When checking into a new hotel overseas?

WORM
00:20:32.520 – 00:21:41.570
Yeah, a couple thoughts. Usually what they don’t provide are electrical adapters.

Although if your luck is good, if you forgot one, sometimes the concierge can find one for you or you can go buy one. But I always go to a chart of the country and what kind of electrical adapters I need to take. Something that I take.

And this is relating to that, but it concerns water is I’ve started traveling with an electric coil. I like my coffee hot in the morning. And also you can sterilize water, so you can take tap water, you can boil it with your electrical coil.

They’re fairly lightweight, and that gives you clean water around the world.

One more pragmatic thing, and this is a change in subject, but one way that hotels make a little more money, as you know, is they have minibars and they tend to have these things that are just what you want during a weak moment. They’re like the worst thing for you nutritionally. So we’re talking salty, greasy chips and candy bars.

And so if I think I’m going to hit the mini bar, which indeed I’ve done over the years, maybe I get a few things at a cheaper place before I get a candy bar, a snack, maybe something less junky. Because if you get a meal from the mini bar, it’s going to cost way more than if you get it at almost any other venue.

GERM
00:21:41.970 – 00:21:52.690
I love me a good mini bar meal. I fall victim to that many times. You’re exactly right. It’s just the shock, the sticker shock that comes later is always one that gets me.

WORM
00:21:56.690 – 00:22:03.260
Paul, any thoughts on water safety, both for drinking and for immersing and cleaning your body?

GERM
00:22:03.500 – 00:23:51.990
Yes. Well, for when it comes to water safety, I have no concerns when it comes to immersing and washing my body. That part is fine.

I am all good with getting in the shower, washing hands, soap and water. That’s all fine. The question is drinking. To me, that’s the chance for some kind of infection to get from the water into my body.

And so my own personal approach is this. I do not have a test that’s going to give me point of care, rapid, reliable access to understanding how much contamination is in the tap water.

I just don’t have that. So for me personally, when I’m in a more challenged and austere setting, I will usually avoid drinking untreated tap water.

Now, treated tap water is typically fine. You talked a moment ago separately about one treatment option, which is to boil it. You’re making tea or coffee.

Even if you want drinking water, you can boil that water and it is totally safe from an infectious perspective. Likewise. And we’ve talked about these little gizmos before too, right, Chris? The tap water that comes out in a hotel, it’s usually clear.

I mean, if you look at it and it looks befouled and murky, then I’m not drinking it under any circumstances. But if it looks clear and you’re worried about microscopic growth of organisms, you can also treat with one of those little UV sterilizer gizmo.

Those work well for clear water. If cloudy water doesn’t work, if it’s clear, it does. And the reason I like that is it leaves behind no unpleasant aftertaste. For example.

Now you need to charge them, you need to use them properly. Some people still prefer using chlorine dioxide, iodine. There’s a number of different chemicals you can add.

I personally, in the hotel context, am a big fan of the UV sterilizers for drinking. But again, you can take a shower and feel pretty good about that. I guess I wouldn’t open my mouth too much when taking a shower.

That’s kind of the same problem, but otherwise should be all good.

WORM
00:23:55.670 – 00:23:58.710
Good. And Paul, what do you think about swimming pool safety?

GERM
00:23:58.950 – 00:24:53.010
Well, swimming pool safety. So from an infection perspective, is it possible to catch diarrhea by drinking in the water when you swim? Yes, it is. And that’s true.

Here in the United States, one of the leading culprits is a microorganism called Cryptospora ridium. We’ve talked about this before. It’s sort of the GI flavor of malaria, but it’s for your intestines, not your bloodstream.

And Cryptosporidium can make you terribly sick with explosive diarrhea. It is super hardy and it’s super difficult to kill with chlorination.

And that’s the reason why explosive episodes of explosive diarrhea have been linked to swimming pools, at least here in the United States. And that’s true, presumably elsewhere in the world. So if you swim, I would keep my mouth shut. Try not to drink too much of that water.

To me, Chris, the bigger concern I have for swimming pools is actually not infection, but injury prevention. What kind of pearls might you share with us, please, on that topic?

WORM
00:24:53.330 – 00:26:10.870
Well, a few. And indeed, the first thing is never get into any body of water, whether it’s a swimming pool or a lake, any other way than feet first.

If you assume there’s sufficient depth and you go in head first, it may be more shallow than you assume, then you can really hurt yourself or kill yourself. I was with some doctor buddies when I was training in Peru. We were at a hotel with a pool.

One young doc Dove, there was a diving board, but the water was only four feet deep. And actually he got off lucky. He did get a nasty laceration on the top of his scalp, which had to be sutured, but luckily no neurologic damage.

But he could have broken his neck. He could have been paralyzed. So go into a body of water feet first. And of course, don’t leave children unsupervised.

You know, drowning is a real risk. So ideally a pool will have a fence around it so little kids can’t get into it. And just back to what you mentioned about infections.

They’re not that common, but a question I get as well. If I smell chlorine. Is the pool safe? And as you say, Cryptosporidium is not killed that well by chlorine.

But also giardia, another infection is fairly resistant to chlorine. So if a beaver, for example, use the pool as a bathroom, boy, a whole lot of people who use the pool after that could get giardia.

GERM
00:26:11.110 – 00:26:24.150
And I gotta tell you, the person who uses that pool as a bathroom before you, it wasn’t a beaver, it was a human being. It was all the other hotel guests who were befouling and be shitting in the pool. So yeah, thanks for that. Nice idea.

WORM
00:26:30.630 – 00:26:35.680
And Paul, sort of on the that pool theme, what do you think about bars and nightlife and drinking?

GERM
00:26:36.480 – 00:28:33.530
Look, I am not a big nightlife person, so I can’t give you too many personal direct pearls of wisdom. Certainly no war stories. But it is clear that nighttime people go out, they want to enjoy themselves.

There will be substances that are altering of our consciousness. That’s why people drink. Alcohol is to get drunk, for example. You know, this can be done safely.

But it is a real concern that I have, and that’s true for anybody. More true in my opinion for women who are traveling alone than others. But anyone can become predated upon by bad actors in this context.

Most people who go to the club are going to have a fine experience. It’s usually safe, but not always.

And I just want to say that unfortunately there are so many substances, for example, that could be spiked into, into a drink that I’m just not aware of a reliable way to test your drink before you take a drink. There are all kinds of myths out there. A nail polish that changes color, a straw that will change color or something when you stick it in.

I would be very leery and ultra skeptical of any technology that’s supposed to answer this question for you. Unfortunately, whether we’re talking about Rohypnol or other sedative hypnotics, you know, you just don’t know that they’re in there.

They don’t have a particular odor or color or flavor. And so this is really about that initial decision. Hey, where are we going? Who are we going with? What’s the agenda?

Who’s going to have each other’s back? Who’s watching the drinks? Who’s procuring the drinks, all of that.

And I think those common sense things, which are exactly the same you would do at home as you would do overseas, you just want to heighten that vigilance and really steal your resolve. Be very careful and diligent about this when you’re out. And if you’re not sure about the sanctity of a drink, don’t drink it.

If you don’t like the viable place, get up and leave. You know, just do not feel peer pressure. If you’ve made a decision, you start to regret that decision.

Just make a change and take care of yourselves, please.

WORM
00:28:34.330 – 00:29:13.330
So what if somebody has made beer or another alcohol beverage at home? Is it safe? Well, the answer is maybe. Usually it’s fine.

But we do see the occasional report of somebody getting something like methanol in with their homebrew, which can be very serious or even, even fatal. So I can’t give one size fits all.

Generally, if you buy your alcoholic beverages at a store and if it looks official and sealed, it’s going to be safe. If you get it in a more informal setting and it’s home brewed, then the quality is really going to be variable.

Paul, do you have a rule of thumb for this?

GERM
00:29:13.810 – 00:29:47.100
I mean, I just. I really just do. I personally do not consume homebrewed alcohol. I’m just so worried about ethylene glycol or lead or other poisons getting in.

You know, we’ve seen this issue in parts of South Asia of Nipa virus, which the fruit bats get into the palm top of a palm tree, people make palm wine, they actually get nipa infection. There’s just so many issues with home brewed alcohol. The professionally brewed stuff is dangerous enough.

I personally am not a home brewed person unless I brewed it myself and I’m not a beer maker. Maybe I should aspire to get into that. So for me, that unfortunately is a no.

WORM
00:29:47.340 – 00:29:49.340
Yeah, I tend to lean away from it too.

GERM
00:29:55.260 – 00:30:15.100
Chris, I have a question for you. This really gets to safety, health, but also enjoyment. We talked about hostels and men minute ago. Let’s broaden that question.

What is your philosophy about pros and cons of different kinds of accommodation? Specifically hotels versus VRBOs versus AirBNBs, hostels, home exchanges. What’s your philosophy?

WORM
00:30:15.740 – 00:32:17.190
Well, it’s largely a matter of what you like and what you’re looking for and what makes you comfortable and what you can afford. So there’s not a right or a wrong answer here. As a general rule, hotels are more convenient. Everything works.

Airbnb or VRBOs or other similar places like that, they’re more charming. Often you get a kitchen, but, you know, the people who are hosting it are often amateurs. Maybe it’s a little more funky.

It’s hard to find the light Switch. So it’s a little more eccentric hostel.

You’ll save money, you’ll meet more people and then for a longer duration, there’s these new emerging home exchange programs. There’s one called Kindred, there’s one called Home Exchange, and you basically swap houses with somebody in a network of vetted people.

All have pros and cons. What I’ve tended to use recently more is Airbnb, just because there’s a lot of them. They’re all over the world, even in rural Uganda.

I’ve stayed in Airbnbs. I like having a kitchen. You can interact with the host. Do read the reviews. If a place has no reviews, it may be good or bad.

If it has a lot of reviews and they’re good, it’s probably going to be a good place. One thing I’ll warn you about, though, fake Google reviews or fake Airbnb reviews, I’ve only been taken by that one once.

But I one time stayed in a hotel in. Where was I? Northern Chile. And the reviews were really good. It was like Google reviews of 4.9 average.

And I got there and it was a dump and it was expensive and it wasn’t at all like the reviews said. So then I went back and I looked at the reviews and they were all entered very close to each other in time, and they were all very similar.

So I think they were fake. So as you use these services more and more, just be aware that for any product, including Airbnb and Google Reviews, it’s actually a paid service.

You can pay a certain amount of money and some team of people will put up a number of favorable reviews for you. So I like Airbnb. I like all of these options. They all have pros and cons. Do read the reviews and be aware that not all reviews are sincere.

GERM
00:32:17.590 – 00:32:41.760
It really sounds right to me. And I’ll just put in a friendly, positive plug for the house exchange change process.

It just makes sense to me that you’re trading houses with someone. Neither party is likely to trash the other person’s house. And I do have friends and family who’ve done this and they have love, love, loved it.

I’ve heard nothing but positive things. So that’s. I have not tried that yet myself, but I think that’s on my agenda for the coming year.

WORM
00:32:41.920 – 00:33:16.010
Yeah, the Kindred website, which I just checked out, they state that one reason they have a low rate of houses getting trashed is, quote, everybody has skin in the game. So I think that’s true. And that actually is something that we haven’t done, but we’re considering doing in the near future. Foreign.

GERM
00:33:19.530 – 00:33:50.480
Thank you so much for joining us on episode 85 of Germ and Worm. As always. Again, we do welcome your questions on travel, health and wellness.

Please send them to us along with tips for success or suggested corrections.

Email is1way germandworm gmail.com or just visit us online germanworm.com if you’ve enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing, giving us a favorable thumbs up on your device and spreading the word with friends, family and on social media. Those are free ways to support this podcast. I’m Germ.

WORM
00:33:50.560 – 00:33:53.920
I’m Worm. It’s a big planet. See it in good health and we’ll.

GERM
00:33:53.920 – 00:34:16.450
See you next time.

This podcast is designed to inform, inspire and entertain, but this podcast does not establish a doctor patient relationship and therefore it should not replace your conversation with a qualified healthcare professional. Please see one before your next advice.

The opinions in this podcast are Dr. Sanford’s and Dr. Pottinger’s alone and do not necessarily represent the opinions of University of Washington or UW Medicine.