Exit Two-Step?

Commonest medical complaint of the U.S. tourist is diarrhea, which may be a simple, short-lived discomfort or, in the form of amoebic dysentery, a severe, life-threatening disease. Last week, though Mexicans stoutly insist that their country is not so bad as others to the south, Mexico City's local government took a major step toward eliminating what is variously known as turista, the Aztec two-step, and Montezuma's revenge. In the capital's big, sparkling new Jamaica Market, and in a dozen smaller ones, watchful health inspectors installed a rigorous system of spraying fruits and vegetables with a chemical named Mobidin (containing colloidal silver and copper). The chemical, it is claimed, kills every germ in sight.

Actually, besides germs in water and food, doctors indict other villains, including the oil used in cooking, hot seasonings, even climate, altitude and just plain overeating. Mexicans, among whom dysentery is endemic, use such home-grown remedies as guava juice and seeds, guava-leaf tea, cactus pear seeds. Medically more accepted remedies: bismuth and paregoric, or in well-diagnosed cases under a doctor's care, the newer antibiotics. Currently popular is a new nonprescription tablet made by Ciba Pharmaceuticals called Entero-Vioform (an antiseptic containing iodine). A lot of these treatments, Mexicans hope, may become unnecessary as a result of the chemical warfare in the markets. Everyone was cheering the campaign last week except the vegetable vendors. Their complaint: the disinfectant withers the outer leaves of lettuce and romaine heads, making them highly antiseptic but less salable.

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