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What Is Cryptosporidium And Why Has It Been In The News?


Cryptosporidium is a tiny parasitic organism that can cause temporary gastrointestinal distress called Crypotosporidiosis. The primary causes are drinking water contaminated with excrement from an animal infested with Cryptosporidium or oral contact with feces from a contaminated person.

Multnomah County’s Health Officer, Dr. Paul Lewis, says that a handful of Portland residents get sick from Cryptosporidium each month, typically due to exposure to the parasite while traveling or from exposure to livestock. The most common source of Crypotosporidiosis outbreaks nationally is exposure to an infected person in swimming pools or other recreational water settings. Healthy individuals bounce back quickly. However, Crypotosporidiosis is more detrimental to the elderly and infants as well as folks with compromised immune systems.

Dr. Lewis also told OPB news that Cryptosporidium is not established in the Portland water supply. That doesn’t mean, however, that there are none of these parasitic organisms in Portland’s Bull Run water source.

The Portland Water Bureau regularly tests for oocysts which are the resting stage of single Cryptosporidium organisms. This testing ensures compliance with Oregon Health Authority requirements when it gave the Water Bureau a treatment waiver in 2012. The variance was granted due to exclusion of livestock and limited human access to the Bull Run watershed, as well as documentation of low occurrence of Cryptosporidium in both wildlife scat and the water.

Cryptosporidium at the water intake site was last detected in August of 2002, and on December 30, 2011. But seven tests since the beginning of 2017 included Cryptosporidium oocysts. Though not required by the Oregon Health Authority, the Water Bureau switched to their back up water supply, groundwater wells along the Columbia River, on February 13. Officials suspect that more wildlife scat than usual has entered the water due to heavy rains. Regardless, the Water Bureau, out of an “abundance of caution”, wanted time for more analysis and made the switch to well water.

CUB has been monitoring Cryptosporidium compliance with the Oregon Health Authority’s treatment variance all along. Due to these recent results, we are meeting with Water Bureau folks on their follow-up plans and scientific findings will continue to guide our analysis. As the Bureau scopes out an upcoming system master plan update, however, we will pay particularly close attention to ensure thorough review of possible new treatment options. 

For more information, here is a Cryptosporidium FAQ: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/article/627808

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02/16/17  |  0 Comments  |  What Is Cryptosporidium And Why Has It Been In The News?

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