A woman washes dishes on the street in Hanoi, Vietnam. The World Health Organization says the burden of foodborne disease in Southeast Asia is one of the highest in the world.
Luong Thai Linh/EPA/Landov
A common nuisance of wandering the world is travelers’ diarrhea. Food in many regions of the world isn’t always properly handled, and that can put you in bed for several days.
Countries with strict (and regularly enforced) food safety regulations, like the U.S., still experience occasional, high-profile outbreaks of foodborne diseases. This fall, hundreds of unlucky diners at Chipotle restaurants around the country fell prey to outbreaks of E. coli and norovirus.
But foodborne illness cases here in the U.S. are few compared with countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, where the disease burden of contaminated food is…