Your parent are not necessarily correct about typhus. There are about 6 different diseases called "typhus" that are unrelated. The typhus I am refering to that you can get a vaccine for is one carried by a biting louse (and very rarely by other blood sucking critters.) I believe it is endemic in China but I may be mistaken, hence my suggestion you check the CDC page.
You dermatologist is going to tell you something totally different than I am about the antibiotic, mainly because he is not a microbiologist and I am
I was assuming you were talking about getting an antibiotic specifically for the trip which I do not recommend. I am guessing from your comment that you are already perscribed this antibiotic for acne related reasons? If so that sort of changes the field of play. While I personally do not advocate antibiotics for that use I am not going to argue against a standing perscription. One thing I do want to warn you about most antibiotics are not broad scale killers and do not take out everything in your system, that is why we have so many different kinds. What are you currently taking? If the antibiotic is one that is not effective against the probiotics then you can take both. Or, you can take both anyways and just take one of the pills in the morning and the other at night so that the probiotics have a chance to establish some without hard antagonism by the antibiotic.
"Epidemic typhus, which is sometimes called jail fever or louse-borne typhus, is caused by Rickettsia prowazekii, which is carried by body lice. When the lice feed on a human, they may simultaneously defecate. When the person scratches the bite, the feces (which carrys the bacteria) are scratched into the wound. Body lice are common in areas in which people live in overcrowded, dirty conditions, with few opportunities to wash themselves or their clothing. Because of this fact, this form of typhus occurs simultaneously in large numbers of individuals living within the same community; that is, in epidemics. This type of typhus occurs when cold weather, poverty, war, and other disasters result in close living conditions that encourage the maintenance of a population of lice living among humans. Some medical historians think that the Great Plague of Athens in 430 B.C. may have been epidemic typhus. Epidemic typhus is now found in the mountainous regions of Africa, South America, and Asia."
That's what healthatoz.com says about the type of thyphus that is caused by lice. CDC said nothing about lice, mostly just un-safe water and food. EDIT: I previously looked at the disease called "typhoid", but did a search on "typhus", which gave me a large page, and this information:
"Treatments for most rickettsial illnesses are similar and include administration of appropriate antibiotics (e.g., tetracyclines, chloramphenicol, azithromycin, fluoroquinolones, and rifampin) and supportive care. Treatment should usually be given empirically prior to disease confirmation, and the particular antimicrobial agent and the length of treatment are dependent upon the disease and the host.
No licensed vaccines for prevention of rickettsial infections are commercially available in the United States."
If that's the case, the acne medication I'm using is a form of tetracyline I think, which would possibly cure the typhus, but I'm not sure.
You're right, my doctor had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned "gut flora". I took 100mg of minocin (minocycline) once a day, but now he is making me take two 100mg pills a day, because the previous method was not working. I read that this medicine kills E. coli and Shigella ssp., which are both the main causes of traveller's diarrhea. It also kills several other things as well. (
Here's a PDF, check pages 6 and 7.) I don't know if it hurts the normal bacteria that are evidentally helpful.
-Ben
I'm good with chopsticks, and I often have dinner at my friend's house. Lol, I'm such a moocher.
