I cannot speak to Remicade specifically, because I wasn’t on
it very long - though, come to think of it, I was never told not to be around
mold. I am currently on a biologic- and have been for almost 9 years and I know
that mold can be dangerous, but have never been told it would kill me through
regular exposure.
Saying mold will kill you sounds dramatic. Honestly, if I
was told that it was because of the remi/biologic treatment, I would question
its validity. I have personally never heard that. Mold may be dangerous to you
for other reasons based on your health, but just for IBD? Sounds weird to me.
Obviously, with Remicade and other IBD treatments, you
are immune compromised and should be wary about places- especially with out of
country travel. Now, I don’t know much about Colombia, and I really hope I’m
not being insensitive/misinformed, but you may need to be more wary with a
county like Colombia due to a lack of sanitation standards.
Be careful! Wash your hands, drink bottled water. Don’t
eat food off the street, be wary of meats that you aren’t certain were cooked
and handled correctly. Carry Purell and toilet paper. I don’t know what the
toilet situation is in Colombia, but when I was in Thailand, I had a small
package of wet wipes and some TP with me when I left the hotel because they use
wash guns (butt blasters) and not TP typically.
Other tips include only eating fruit that comes from
under a peel (melon, oranges, bananas) and not things like apples- which could
have been washed in contaminated water. Try not to open your mouth in the
shower and, depending on where you are going/staying, you might use bottled
water to brush your teeth.