Cryptosporidium
Water is the driving force of all nature - Leonardo da Vinci
image by: Virginia Department of Health
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“Water-borne pathogen.” Three gut-twisting words with enough power to make any epidemiologist, public health official, or globetrotting tourist double over. One of the most common forms of disease transmission is the microbial hijacking of our most precious fluid. This mechanism of infection is employed by a motley crew of microscopic organisms that have adapted to prey upon our unquenchable thirst, from pervasive bacteria like cholera and typhoid to often less famous but no less formidable parasites such as giardia and dracunculiasis.
Yes, these pathogens commonly sidle their way to our coiling intestines via the ingestion of water, but often not via so prosaic a route as an icy glass…
Resources
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.
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.
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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).
Microbial Misadventures: Playing With Fire
The parasite is kind enough to restrict its shenanigans to the world of water. Outbreaks in humans typically revolve around recreational water exposure: swimming pools, water parks, water sprinklers, and wave pools.
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.
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