Millions of people have died worldwide because of diseases in fecal matter.

Unless you wear single-use gloves, make sure to use a lot of alcohol and/or soap and water to desinfect those fingers after you have "massaged" the bunghole.

Read recently that a fatwa has been issued allowing Muslims to use toilet paper.

I don't imagine that will mean paper will be available in toilets all over the world but that won't matter because all over the world, toilet paper is NOT routinely supplied. Bring your own ALWAYS because then and only then will you always have toilet paper.

BTW toilet paper is readily available in even little village stores all over Morocco, albeit in smaller rolls than in the west.

Just remember to put the used paper in the bin since most sewer systems can't handle paper

Using water?? Yes, can just imagine that at 4am in Patagonia - outside the tent, pitch black, below freezing and wind at Force 5. You will need one hand just to hold on to a tree to stop from being blown away.

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

I'm in Morocco now, and a combination of wet wipes and toilet tissue works well.

All hotels will have western toilets, it's just the places you might stop at along the way, or if out on the piste.

Carry some alcohol gel, many bathrooms down have soap.

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My blog about touring and adv riding

Look what I have been given....

The branding is interesting but the operation of the product may be made a little harder.

Would of been easier if there was a captain brown, or something like that!

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The bottle placed facing downwards etween your knees squeezing it provides the outdoor "sink"... wash your hands after having used the Bathroom was standard to me and I thoght it's quite common... So for you TwoUpFront:

#3 After going to the toilet, WASH YOUR HANDS!


(Alcohol is not needed, thats western germ paranoia. If this was dangerous, there wouldn't be more ppl in India than in europe and USA combined ;-) ) (yess, I googled it, wikipedia confirms those numbers...)

Diseases of facal matter (Cholera and the like) happen when your poo-germs get into drinking water. What way you wiped your butt when releasing them doesn't matter...

Sure. Birth rates are irrelevant.

Or your food. People tend to touch things during the day.

I will also note, that "washing your hands" in much of the muslim world, often constitutes dipping and rubbing your hands in a basin with water alone, and not under running water using soap.

But, hey, no need to worry about diseases as there are more people there than here. It must then be perfectly risk and disease free.

Seriously, I'm done. If you think that the amount of people in a part of the world somehow proves a certain type of behaviour is as safe as another behaviour in another part of the world, then there is nothing I can say.

West Africans are more acutely aware of the importance of hygiene then most westerners.

I have often witnessed locals being upset with the behaviour of us 'white people' in these matters.

Way but for more about this, see Hans Rosling and his statistics.
OU on the BBC: Don't Panic – The Truth About Population - OpenLearn - Open University


DON’T PANIC

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Dave

Some of you should look up "germ theory". Apparently, it is not understood by quite a few of you.

Oh, yeah, "but it's only a theory",

Having studied Microbiology at University I think I understand bacteria, virus and hygiene very well thank you

You seem to be confusing an acceptable way of cleaning up after leaving the kids at the pool for billions of people worldwide with good hygiene practices.

It doesn't matter whether you've caressed your posterior with some of andrex's finest quilted bottom soothers or if you scraped it clean with your finger nail.

What matters is your hygiene standards afterwards

Exposure to germs is actually good for a human immune system as it helps a body build up a resistance to bacteria and infections. Unfortunately western media and marketing by the cleaning product industry have many people believing any thing which isn't more sterile than an operating theatre is dangerous for them.

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Paul "Every county of England, every country of Europe and every (part of every inhabited) continent of the Earth" 94% done! What's left? Central America, East, Central and West Africa, Australia & New Zealand

Take a look at a piece of lavatory paper under a microscope - it's not like a sheet of plastic, but a web of fibres. These germs of which you speak can easily get through here, and they are on your finger. Only there is no water flowing over your finger when you use paper.

Still need to wash hands after cleaning up, even if you use paper.

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

If only it was that simple. Not touching feces in the first place helps a lot too.

Yeah, dysentery, cholera and other niceties is not a problem at all, because it's actually good for you. It is only an attitude problem, and it's not dangerous at all. It's all due to Western sensitivies. Bear in mind, I am NOT talking about germs in general. I am talking about literally touching feces.

Sorry, but you attempting an appeal to authority by claiming to have studied microbiology is ridiculous, given that you don't know about how fecal matter is a real issue in transferring diseases.


Really? You really think that all else equal, just as much fecal bacteria touches your hand with toilet paper in between you butt and hand as washing your bum with a squirt bottle and massaging your bunghole with your fingers?

And, also, do people ignore the point about not using running water to wash your hands afterwards, as is so common in Musling countries, the moment you move out of the cities?

Anyway, we have people claiming touching feces is not a health issue, that germs, even from feces is not a problem when it comes to spreading diseases, and that because paper is porous, therefore you're just as much in touch with bacteria than if using your fingers directly.

Excellent. I really like just how stupid this is, and just how little TheWarden seems to have actually been educated by his claimed "education".