Fail-safe way to not get food poisoned in China

While I was in China last summer, I was the only student at PIB who didn’t get food-poisoned at least once. Now, I didn’t just eat food from nice restaurants or stay away from un-cooked vegetables to avoid getting sick. In fact, I was one of the more adventurous eaters.

So, how did I do it? My travel medicine doctor back in the US gave me a prescription to the newly released Xifaxin. Xifaxin is a locally acting antibiotic, meaning that once swallowed it stays in your gastrointestinal tract and doesn’t enter your blood stream. It kills bacteria in food and drink that could make one sick. This means that you don’t have to take it like other antibiotics, i.e. continually, so that you don’t build up an immunity. Rather, you can selectively take Xifaxin whenever you suspect that a meal might lead to your being food-poisoned.

I experienced no side-effects, except smugness.

Anyway, Xifaxin is becoming a very popular medicine for people who travel to third-world countries, and a prescription should be easy to obtain.

Definitely invest in Xifaxin if you’re going to be in China for an extended period of time, especially if you’re doing a program like Princeton in Beijing. It sucks being sick, but it sucks even more when you have to miss class, get behind on work, and stay in bed while your friends go out－－－all because that lamb kebob gave you a nasty case of 拉肚子。