Warning to Brit families as parasitic infection called ‘crypto’ which causes extreme diarrhoea hits US water parks
WORRIED health officials in the US have issued an urgent warning over a parasitic infection which is thriving in water parks and swimming pools.
Cryptosporidium – commonly known as crypto – is a shocking bug that causes chronic bouts of the runs and can strike down sufferers for up to three weeks.
The parasite causes cryptosporidiosis, which doctors say leaves adults suffering “profuse, watery diarrhoea”.
However, the effects can be far worse for children, pregnant women and those with weaker immune systems.
The parasite thrives in pools and water parks because it has a tough outer shell which makes it highly tolerant to chlorine.
It spreads when people swallow something that has come into contact with the faeces of a sick person, like water in a public swimming pool.
It takes just 10 crypto parasites to be struck down, and an infected person sheds 10 to 100 million in a single bowel movement.
Cryptosporidium is also a leading cause of infectious diarrhoea in the UK but has long been associated with foreign travel.
What is crypto and what illnesses does it cause?
Cryptosporidium is a microscopic parasite that causes the diarrhoeal 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.
The shell also makes it very tolerant to chlorine.
While this parasite can be spread in several ways drinking water and recreational water is the most common.
Cryptosporidium is a leading cause of waterborne disease among humans in the United States.
Although it’s hardly ever fatal with just one death reported since 2009, according to the US Centres for Disease and Prevention (CDC).
Between 2009 and 2017, 444 cryptosporidiosis outbreaks – which resulted in 7,465 cases of infection – were reported in 40 states and Puerto Rico.
On Friday, the CDC reported that average annual crypto outbreaks are now worryingly on the rise again.
The parasite is a problem in pools is because an infected swimmer can excrete the parasite at several orders of magnitude higher than the amount necessary to cause infection.
There are preventative measures that can help stem the number of outbreaks, and the CDC is now working to educate the public on what to do.
Youngsters sick with diarrhoea should not be placed in child care, according to the CDC, and following a cryptosporidiosis outbreak.
Child care workers should clean surfaces with hydrogen peroxide, as chlorine bleach is an ineffective means of killing the parasite.
As for pools, anyone suffering diarrhoea should avoid swimming until at least two weeks after their diarrhoea subsides, the CDC says.
In 1993, more than 400,000 people in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area were infected when crypto got into the local water supply. It was the largest waterborne illness outbreak in US history.
