Bile duct cancer is commonly found in the Mekong River Basin, . in the northeast of Thailand, where the main protein source is fish. The villagers usually consume uncooked cyprinid fish, which is infected with the infective stage of liver fluke. Northeastern Thailand has a dry savanna climate, but during the rainy season, floods overwhelm the river and wetlands. The villagers use various methods to catch fish and they like eating the fish from the wetland, uncooked. Besides their daily consumption of fresh fish, it is also preserved by various methods; fermented, pickled, or soured for eating during the dry season or for sale at markets. However, the liver fluke sometimes remains vital and if infected, people can carry the infection in their biliary tract for 20- 30 years, during which it can cause jaundice, followed by cancer; most sufferers die soon after diagnosis. The geographic features and attitudes to raw food influence upon life style and disease.
