Jaq....common sense rules here.
We advise all of our customers
not to drink tap water- as Tim says, the town water tends to be pretty good but that's a only quality thing- the water is still 'different' and will give people upset stomachs although it is usually safe as far as bacteria and pollutants go.
I've found that a sensible compromise is the best way....by all means (we tell our customers) clean teeth and wash normally in tap water (in towns) but unless you're used to it, don't drink it (I do, my staff do and I've no doubt Tim does but we're used to it).
The risk of getting the 'Marrakech express' dramatically increases as the temperature does.....on the last trip that I came back from two weeks ago, only one person had to use a diarrhoea tablet and he was fine in 24 hours...on a trip last summer though, everyone (bar me
) had it to some degree....two quite badly.
I guess it's because food storage is less stringent there, and bugs and algaes grow much faster in the hot weather
You can go too far....we've had some people reluctant to eat salads which is a real shame as Moroccan salad is wonderful stuff....missing out on eating it because it's been washed in local water is a shame and IMO a bit unnecessary as everything you eat from has been washed in local water as well- you'd be depriving yourself of some seriously nice food by getting too worried if you didn't eat it IMO.
Bottled water is cheap- there'll be a shop in every single village that does bottled (and sealed) water- it's 5dh from a shop or you can pay 15dh from a hotel....Sidi Ali also do 5 litre bottles for 9dh and they're marked up at that on their labels so that's the cheapest way of getting fresh bottled water outside of a town.
Whatever you do, DO NOT drink water from streams unless you KNOW you're very very close to the source- villages empty their sewage into them and Bilharzia (a parasitic flatworm infestation)
is fairly common in some areas.
We've seen (European) people fill water bottles from the river in the Todra gorge and drink it....there are probably 40+ villages above that location whose waste gets fed into that river and drinking it is just plain silly IMO....we even advise people against washing their faces in that sort of water- personally I don't even soak my buff for hot weather in it, I use bottled water.
As for other inoculations, as Tim said, it's covered in the knowledge base......Rabies is an increasing problem in Morocco and several Europeans have contracted it there in the last few years....Personally though I haven't had a rabies jab though (and won't for the foreseeable future) and again, common sense rules.....don't go near any stray dogs who look ill, or any at all if you want to be totally safe)
I've had Tetanus boosts, Polio and the various Hep jabs- I've also had Yellow fever inoculations as well but that was for a trip to Senegal/Gambia where it is a problem,- there have been a few isoltated yellow fever outbreaks in Morocco but it's
not listed as a yellow fever risk by the W.H.O
In short, common sense rules
EDIT...I forgot to add what I tell our customers at briefings.....I'm not qualified to give the advice and it's all based on experience- if in any doubt you should consult your own doctor or properly qualified professionals yada yada yada yada
