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Microbial Misadventures: Playing With Fire

Cryptosporidiosis is, of all the parasitic waterborne diseases, by far the most common and geographically expansive. Until recently, crypto seemed so predictable, ruining our hot summer days spent in the tepid, toddler-filled waters of the local water park’s lazy river or casting a pall of fear over those of you fortunate enough to enjoy tap water that is not drawn directly from the cafe au lait-colored waters of the Mississippi.

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Featured

 Crypto: How This Poop In Pool Parasite Has Been On The Rise

When someone offers you the opportunity to swim in "crypto," make sure you find out specifically what is meant by "crypto." Swimming in cryptocurrency could be good. Swimming in Cryptosporidium would not be good.

 Swimming Pools, Hot Tubs And Other Summer Recreational Water Hazards

Cryptosporidium is a single-celled organism, a protozoan. It causes diarrhea that often lasts for 2-3 weeks and is readily missed by the lab. It This is because often only a stool culture is ordered, and the parasites are instead seen on direct examination of stool through a microscope. Many community hospitals don’t have techs skilled in this and have resorted to sending stool samples “for ova and parasites” to a reference lab, causing further diagnostic delays.

Articles of Interest

Progress In The Fight Against A Parasite That Causes Diarrheal Disease

Using CRISPR, Striepen and his colleagues were able to develop a system for altering genes in Cryptosporidium. They still can't grow the parasite in the lab, "but we can infect animals, and so that way using laboratory animals we can propagate the infection, and therefore we can also propagate these organisms that we have changed," he says. And they can also use the infected animals to test drug or vaccine candidates.

Cryptosporidiosis: A zoonotic disease concern

Cryptosporidium spp. distributes worldwide, especially in undeveloped and developing countries. The distribution has arisen when Cryptosporidium’s oocyst is defecated to water surface from human and animals (wildlife, domestic animals, and livestock) through the feces. The excreted oocysts are sustainable and tolerance with disinfectant, dilute bleach, and chlorine.

Cryptosporidium: A Parasite That Gets Into Drinking Water and Swimming Pools

Though it is more common in warm climates, Cryptosporidium is found in surface water everywhere - never drink untreated water and heed any boil water advisory issued by your local water utility.

Don’t Go in the Water

Why a nasty parasite is thriving in chlorinated swimming pools and water parks.

Parasitic infections: Time to tackle cryptosporidiosis

Cryptosporidium is one of four pathogens responsible for the lion's share of severe diarrhoea in infants and toddlers. Vaccines and treatments are already available or fast being developed for three of the four pathogens identified: rotavirus, Shigella bacteria and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (see 'Child killer'). But for 'crypto', there is no fully effective drug treatment or vaccine, and the basic research tools and infrastructure needed to discover, evaluate and develop such interventions are mostly lacking.

Portland Hit Crisis Mode After Parasites Flooded City's Drinking Water

Residents learn the hard way after refusing treatment plant to save on the cost of water.

Sparkling Pool Water May Hold Disease-Causing Parasites

There isn’t really a chemical that makes water turn a darker color when someone urinates in a pool, but two new reports on the health risks of pools, hot tubs and water playgrounds might make you wish there were.

Swimming pools are full of poop, but they probably won't make you sick

To be clear: it's not because pools are clean. Pools are awful. They're full of poop and pee and probably some blood to round it all out, and lots of them don't have the proper concentration of disinfecting agents. 17 percent of people say they've peed in a public pool before (and let's be honest, if 17 percent are willing to admit it, there have to be way more pool-peeing people who aren't).

Resources

Cryptosporidium and Giardia in Water...

Cryptosporidium and Giardia in Water...a source of information & perspective.

CDC

Cryptosporidium is a microscopic parasite that causes the diarrheal disease cryptosporidiosis. Both the parasite and the disease are commonly known as "Crypto." There are many species of Cryptosporidium that infect animals, some of which also infect humans. The parasite is protected by an outer shell that allows it to survive outside the body for long periods of time and makes it very tolerant to chlorine disinfection. While this parasite can be spread in several different ways, water (drinking water and recreational water) is the most common way to spread the parasite. Cryptosporidium is a leading cause of waterborne disease among humans in the United States.

MayoClinic

In most healthy people, a cryptosporidium infection produces a bout of watery diarrhea and the infection usually goes away within a week or two. If you have a compromised immune system, a cryptosporidium infection can become life-threatening without proper treatment.

Patient

Some people who become infected with cryptosporidium actually have no symptoms. However, they can still pass on the infection to others. But usually infection with cryptosporidium causes a gastroenteritis-type illness. Gastroenteritis is infection of the bowels (intestines). It can take between 3 to 12 days after contact with cryptosporidium before you develop symptoms.