MENA women question for you.

[sandinista! 1,816]

oh my, you ladies have me laughing! But not worried! I am going to be in Egypt, (1st trip), what will I do with my toilet paper? Put it in the trash can? Even after #2? ewwwww. Really?

How anyone can think this (especially in a public toilet!) can be "cleaner" than Toilet Paper, I haven't a clue... Remember Hepatitis C is at seriously high proportions in Egypt... Even the toilets that have a blast of water from the back of the bowel (that typically is aimed poorly and shoots out between the seat and the rim and hits me in the bend of my knees and gets my clothes wet... is gross... and I believe the cause of many an infection in the hoohoo.... (blasts from the back to the front!) And by the way, that problem is specially troublesome for those of us silly Americans who believe a toilet seat is to SIT ON... many Egyptians don't even have one... as MANY sit directly on the rim... so keep the water from doing what I described above... and increase their chances of having it hit their tushie instead of the bend of their knees or the wall in front of them.....

totally off topic, but i'm not understanding what hepatitis c has to do with toilets. there's no blood to blood contact going on there.

but the hepatitis c rates in egypt are positively staggering. i've read the majority of the cases were caused by recycling needles in egypt's big schistosomiasis injection campaign. since hep c can be spread sexually, is it required to be tested for prior to marriage there?

[HLM 1]

No I think there are no requirements unfortunately...

[Nothing1234 2]

oh my, you ladies have me laughing! But not worried! I am going to be in Egypt, (1st trip), what will I do with my toilet paper? Put it in the trash can? Even after #2? ewwwww. Really?

How anyone can think this (especially in a public toilet!) can be "cleaner" than Toilet Paper, I haven't a clue... Remember Hepatitis C is at seriously high proportions in Egypt... Even the toilets that have a blast of water from the back of the bowel (that typically is aimed poorly and shoots out between the seat and the rim and hits me in the bend of my knees and gets my clothes wet... is gross... and I believe the cause of many an infection in the hoohoo.... (blasts from the back to the front!) And by the way, that problem is specially troublesome for those of us silly Americans who believe a toilet seat is to SIT ON... many Egyptians don't even have one... as MANY sit directly on the rim... so keep the water from doing what I described above... and increase their chances of having it hit their tushie instead of the bend of their knees or the wall in front of them.....

totally off topic, but i'm not understanding what hepatitis c has to do with toilets. there's no blood to blood contact going on there.

but the hepatitis c rates in egypt are positively staggering. i've read the majority of the cases were caused by recycling needles in egypt's big schistosomiasis injection campaign. since hep c can be spread sexually, is it required to be tested for prior to marriage there?

That's right and its so sad how staggering the numbers are from this campaign...

Speaking from personal experience of growing up and living with relatives that have Hep C...I find it heartbreaking the lack of knowledge/education on Hep C there is in the US and even Egypt. People "assume" without knowledge that it can be spread simply by sharing a drink, kissing/hugging a person or sitting on a toilet...that is absolutely incorrect and those infected are treated like outcasts because of this type of thinking.

Just some basic facts:

HEPATITIS C major risks factors...

Hemophilia

Hemodialysis

Organ transplant

IV drug use

Blood transfusion prior to 1992

Needle-stick injury

Tattooing

Body piercing

Sexual activity with multiple partners

Thanks for bringing that up babes!

[KHPerfectMatch 1]

Wow.............never heard of blood in toilets...... amazing....

Well I can think of 2 very common ways that blood ends up in toilets right off the top of my head! .... We're talking about blasting someone else's "stuff" up towards an area of the body very prone to "fissure and piles"... the potential transmission route seems to be fairly obvious here... perhaps it is not common.. (I doubt any American studies have considered the potential for cross contamination in Egyptian toilets) but I don't see it as impossible...

My husband had to clean up the restroom at the restaurant where he works the other day because someone had bled ALL OVER the toilet, clear down on to the floor! I was just PO'd when I heard he was given that chore without any Bloodborne Pathogens training, etc. and of course not given proper personal protective equipment, etc.

I think you're probably MORE likely to get Hep A or Hep E if the only exposure is to feces, but how do you know what is IN the feces? You often cannot see blood in feces, that's why they do those tests! (And there's plenty of Hep A in Egypt too!)

But whenever you are talking about unsanitary toilets in a country with a Hep C "epidemic" and these contraptions in their toilets may have blood and or feces left behind by someone else on them, in combination with blasts out of the toilet bowl towards your rear end I think you need to exercise great caution.

There is disagreement about what measures are necessary to properly disinfect items contaiminated with the HCV.... what I've read is that bleach, detergents, etc. have not been proven as effective methods... that only heat (autoclave sterilizaton) is a proven method of killing the HCV. And as far as I could tell the majority of public toilets in Egypt haven't had ANY cleaning material applied to them EVER, so I think great caution is adviseable...

[Ihavequestions 419]

but the hepatitis c rates in egypt are positively staggering. i've read the majority of the cases were caused by recycling needles in egypt's big schistosomiasis injection campaign. since hep c can be spread sexually, is it required to be tested for prior to marriage there?

My mother-in-law died of HCV and that's how she got it. It's a horrible, horrible, way to go.

No, there's no testing for anything before marriage. Everybody is either a virgin or they were faithful - and their partner was faithul - if they were previously married.

[~Jackie~ 30]

tattooing

[sandinista! 1,816]

Wow.............never heard of blood in toilets...... amazing....

Well I can think of 2 very common ways that blood ends up in toilets right off the top of my head! .... We're talking about blasting someone else's "stuff" up towards an area of the body very prone to "fissure and piles"... the potential transmission route seems to be fairly obvious here... perhaps it is not common.. (I doubt any American studies have considered the potential for cross contamination in Egyptian toilets) but I don't see it as impossible...

My husband had to clean up the restroom at the restaurant where he works the other day because someone had bled ALL OVER the toilet, clear down on to the floor! I was just PO'd when I heard he was given that chore without any Bloodborne Pathogens training, etc. and of course not given proper personal protective equipment, etc.

I think you're probably MORE likely to get Hep A or Hep E if the only exposure is to feces, but how do you know what is IN the feces? You often cannot see blood in feces, that's why they do those tests! (And there's plenty of Hep A in Egypt too!)

But whenever you are talking about unsanitary toilets in a country with a Hep C "epidemic" and these contraptions in their toilets may have blood and or feces left behind by someone else on them, in combination with blasts out of the toilet bowl towards your rear end I think you need to exercise great caution.

There is disagreement about what measures are necessary to properly disinfect items contaiminated with the HCV.... what I've read is that bleach, detergents, etc. have not been proven as effective methods... that only heat (autoclave sterilizaton) is a proven method of killing the HCV. And as far as I could tell the majority of public toilets in Egypt haven't had ANY cleaning material applied to them EVER, so I think great caution is adviseable...

where exactly did i say i never heard of blood in toilets? i said no such thing. the nature of hep c as a virus though generally requires a more invasive exposure than broken skin being sprayed by potentially contaminated water. theoretically, yeah, but it's trivial compared to what peer reviewed studies have revealed as sure means and modes of transmission.

esp. because those tried and true modes of transmission aren't even addressed properly yet in egypt.

[sandinista! 1,816]

circumcision is another big way it's spread there, amongst males and females.

[Nagishkaw 510]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46723

[Mrs.Bayoumi 0]

Dont have one, doubt I'll purchase one. I recall the bathroom after he took a shower - were gonna work on closing that thing called a curtain 1st ...

ROFLMAO!....