Episode 3: Cryptosporidiosis

The podcast discusses cryptosporidiosis (crypto), a waterborne disease caused by microscopic parasites called cryptosporidium. Crypto can be contracted by ingesting food or water contaminated with feces from infected individuals or animals. It is one of the most common causes of waterborne disease in the United States. The parasites are protected by an outer shell, making them resistant to chlorine disinfection in pools. Symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and weight loss. Treatment options vary depending on the individual's health and the duration of the infection. It is important to prevent the spread of crypto by practicing good hygiene and avoiding swallowing contaminated water. Outbreaks of diarrhea are commonly linked to pools, cattle, and childcare facilities. Have you ever wondered if parasites live in your backyard? Are you scared of all these things that can make you sick when you go outside? Welcome back to Diseased Backyardigans. I'm Victoria. I'm Sharif. And I'm Rae. And on today's episode, we're going to be talking about cryptosporidiosis, also called crypto. Wait, wait, wait. Crypto? Wait, cryptocurrency? No. Not the digital currency. It's a different crypto that causes an infection after someone ingests food or water contaminated with feces. And yes, it happens more often than you think. And you can also get infected by touching things or services contaminated with feces from another animal or person. And so, quick little brief introduction. It is one of the most common causes of waterborne disease in the United States. Wait, wait, wait. Okay. I feel like I know what disease is, but what is a waterborne disease? A waterborne disease is essentially microorganisms in contaminated water that cause illnesses after ingesting contaminated water, and then you become sick from it. Wait, wait. Sorry to cut you off. Can you just explain what a microorganism is? Yeah. So, a microorganism is an organism that is so small that it can only be viewed under a microscope. So, you can't see it with your naked eye. And so, these microorganisms may include bacteria, algae, fungi. They're super tiny. So, you're not going to be able to see them with your eye. So, now that we got that all covered, I want to tell you guys about what is crypto. And so, crypto is a disease caused by microscopic parasites called cryptosporidium. And to clarify, a parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host organism and gets its food from or at the expense of its host. So, it can be good or bad, but in this case, you do not want the crypto parasite. And so, it is caused by water diarrhea and other symptoms when ingesting water or food contaminated with feces. So, anyone can get sick from crypto, but individuals with weakened immune systems are more prone to severe life-threatening symptoms. So, let's say you're swimming in a pool that is contaminated with feces without knowing. You swallow the water, which contains crypto. And so, essentially, a cell with a thick wall is then ingested. And once it finds its new host, it will release a bunch of other cells that will invade your intestinal tracts and multiply. So, to put this simply, you ingest the crypto, and once it enters your body, it multiplies and spreads throughout, leading to an infection. So, I'm just curious, Victoria. You said that, you know, like you swallow water. And I'm wondering, like, are we talking? I don't know if you know this or if there's even research done on it, but, like, do you need to swallow a couple mouthfuls of water? Like a lot of water? Do you need to be drinking the water, or do you just, you know, accidentally, you know, swallow some? Yeah, that's a good question. Honestly, I haven't personally done a lot of research on how much water needs to be ingested. But, I mean, I would assume that you would need a, you know, a good gulp of water, you know what I mean? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, if you're in a lake, and, you know, an animal just happened to get, you know, was, you know, contaminated, it was contaminated with an animal's feces, let's say, or a person's, you know, and you happen to get a good gulp of that water. Yeah. I would hope if I drink, like, a drop of water, I won't get sick. I would hope not. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. It depends on how close to the source, maybe. Yeah. So, I think there's a lot more research to be done with that, or maybe I just haven't seen the research about it, but I would assume that you would need a good gulp of it. Okay. And, you know, but one interesting thing about the parasite is, so, you know, if you're in a pool, for example, you know, usually we use chlorine to help, you know, disinfect the pool. So, this parasite is actually protected with an outer shell that allows it to survive outside the body for long periods of time, and it makes it very tolerant to chlorine disinfection. Ooh. So, yeah, you know, don't rely on, you know, if you have diarrhea and you're swimming in someone's pool, don't rely on the chlorine to help disinfect it, because they can still get infected with crypto. Dang, I'm scared of summer camps now. Yeah. Yeah. Chlorine's not killing it. No. Definitely not. So, so, you know, this is all well and good, but, like, how exactly can you get infected? Like, what's the deal with, I get that you can swallow the water, but, like, are there any other ways? Yeah. So, there's actually a lot of different ways to get infected with crypto. So, you know, you can accidentally put something in your mouth, swallowing something that's contaminated with crypto, like the stool of a person or an animal. Ooh. Yeah. And so, you know, I'll talk a little bit more about that, but, you know, if you work with animals or something, you don't wash your hands, and you happen to get some sort of feces on, and then you touch your mouth, that's an infection. And, you know, swallowing recreational water contaminated with crypto, you know, at parks, water parks, and, you know, swallowing water or beverages or eating uncooked food contaminated with crypto, you know, you can get infected. And so, all food should be properly washed before eating, and, you know, even touching, like I said, touching your mouth with contaminated hands, let's say if you're changing a diaper or, you know, infected animals or, you know, kids running around, they're putting their hands all over the place and putting it in their mouth, you know, they're going to get infected. Wait, so, Victoria, so, okay, so I get infected, how do I know I have crypto, like, what are the symptoms, how do I know? Yeah, so, symptoms can vary from person to person, so typically the symptoms will include, you know, diarrhea, vomiting, water, like, weight loss, stomach cramps, and so a fever, and you know, symptoms may take two or more weeks to pass, and even if you don't have symptoms, the parasite takes about two months to pass from your stool, and, yeah, you can still spread the infection during this time period. Wait, wait, you can still spread it, like, how, like, would it have to go through the same mechanism, like, would somebody, like, have to touch your feces to get it or something, or are you just, like, infectious? You're still infectious, yeah, you're still infectious up to, you know, although the symptoms take two or more weeks to pass, you're still infectious for about two months, because it takes the parasite up to two months to pass through your body, yeah, so, like, a fun fact that I saw when I was researching it is, you know, when you do have crypto, and, you know, you are trying to get rid of that parasite, you actually poop out, like, about 10 million to 100 million bacteria cells of crypto out of your body, so that just goes to show how much it multiplies throughout your body, and, you know, it takes about two months to pass from your stool. Okay, okay, so please tell me, please tell me, I want to know how I get treated for this. Yeah. You're talking too much bad about this crypto. I'm going to die, yeah. God, it's crazy. Tell me about the diagnosis. We are in public schools right now. Tell me about the diagnosis. Tell me about the treatment. Yeah, it's wild. So, you know, the small intestine is the site that's most commonly affected, but it can also impact the respiratory and digestive tract, so, you know, the diagnosis for it is, you know, a stool sample is then sent to a lab where a healthcare provider or, you know, someone will look under a microscope because, again, it's, you know, it's a parasite that's, you know, a microorganism, so you can't see it with the naked eye. You have to look under it with a microscope, and so, you know, once they detect the crypto, the treatment options will vary from person to person, and it also depends on how long the parasite has been present, your overall health, your age, and so, like I said, with overall health, it can be resolved independently for people with strong, healthy immune systems, but you know, those with a weak immune system, like people who are dealing with cancer, HIV, you know, their immune systems are compromised, so they can be treated with, and I'm going to butcher this, you know. Go for it. I'm not a doctor, but it's nitrazonide. It can help treat the parasite and allow the body to focus on regaining its immunity, so, you know, overall, you will, if you have a healthy immune system, will recover without the treatment, and you know, you can just drink plenty of fluids, because diarrhea will make you dehydrated, so don't have to worry about that. Okay, that's good to hear. I mean, even regardless, I feel like if I'm having these symptoms, I'm not self-diagnosing with crypto. God. No. All right, but why does this matter, though? Why does this matter? Why does it matter? So, I mean, I'm sure the listeners and even you guys are thinking, like, do I really need to be worried about getting this parasite? Like, what are the chances from this? And so, I actually saw a report from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, it's also known as the CDC, that shows the U.S. 2009-2017 report of crypto outbreaks, and it also shows the statistics of outbreaks of diarrhea we're most commonly linked to. Are you guys ready to hear this? Go for it. I don't know if I am. I'm not a doctor. So, they found that pools had 35% of outbreaks of diarrhea, cattle were 15%, and childcare was into 13%. Crazy childcare is up there with cattle. Right? I know. So, you know, you guys are going to be thinking, what does this mean? And so, for starters, if your friend or your child has diarrhea, you know, maybe don't go in the pool. You know, wait for it to resolve fully, otherwise it will contaminate the water. So, as you can see, pools have 35% of outbreaks of diarrhea, which are linked to crypto. So, that means that people are swimming with diarrhea. And so, you know, maybe just don't go to a pool, or water parks, or jump in a lake if you have diarrhea, and try, I know it's hard not to, not to swallow any pool water at lakes or parks when swimming. You know, for cattle, you want to make sure to always wash your hands and avoid touching your face. You know, for example, I volunteer at an animal shelter where I constantly work with cows, goats, and horses, and all they do is lay in their poop. And so, I don't know what they're doing or what they're getting into, and so I always wear protective gear, like gloves, when touching them, and I avoid touching my face until I take my gloves off and wash my hands thoroughly. You know, this is a big thing, too. If you're touching something, like a surface or anything, and then you put that near your face or it gets in your mouth, that's, you're contaminated, right, then and there, even your eyes. And so, you know, and the same goes for children. It can be difficult if they're constantly running around, you know, they're touching random surfaces, they're touching their butt, they're touching random things, and so they're putting it in their mouth. And some ways to limit the spread of infection are practicing good hygiene everywhere and emphasizing to kids by washing their hands and using hand sanitizer as well. You know, if, you know, you or your kids are, you know, having diarrhea, don't go to school and take them out of daycare. And then also clean and sanitize toys or surfaces that have been infected, and wash your hands after changing diapers. So, I mean, overall, let's just practice good hygiene by washing our hands and, you know, not going into pools or water parks or lakes when you have diarrhea, you know, that can wait. And don't drink untreated water from lakes and rivers and ponds. So, yeah, I mean, well, is there any way, like, you know, we can check, because I don't necessarily trust every person to not go into a pool, like, when they have diarrhea. Is there a way we can monitor, like, water to see if there's, I mean, you're right for not trusting people, because clearly with the statistic that 35% of people are swimming with diarrhea. I mean, you know, I mean, so the CDC actually provides healthy water sites on their page, Assessing Crypto. So, in the sources of this podcast, you can actually click on the CDC page that I'm referring to. And, you know, they discuss crypto overall, but they have a page where they discuss, you know, this is where you should watch out for for healthy water, this is where it's not as healthy. So, I definitely would recommend monitoring that and check for local drinking water advisories. And also take extra caution when traveling, you know, you never know how the water is in different countries or states even. And so, avoid touching your face in general to limit any bacteria, especially crypto that may enter your system. Wow, yeah, I mean, but like, okay, so like, I understand, like, it does seem pretty, pretty serious for, for, like, people who are immunocompromised, but for healthy people, it seems like it kind of just passes. Like, I don't know, like, is this something, like, I guess this seems kind of like, why should I care about it? You know, like, like, it seems like I'll be okay. Right, yeah. And I mean, like I said, people with healthy immune systems, it's not that serious, like, that serious of a disease in healthy people. But you know, those with compromised immune systems, like I said, people who have cancer or HIV, it could be a life threatening disease, you know, you could die from it. And so, although, you know, you know, we all may be healthy, and people listening to this can be healthy, you should still care because you don't want to be swallowing someone else's or some animal's feces. Like, not only is that gross, but then it's not fun to have diarrhea yourself and then have dehydration and vomit, you know, being sick is not fun. And diarrhea is also not fun. And so people should be, you know, advised that instead of spreading your feces all over just stay at home and practice good hygiene, you know, and don't make pools or water parks not fun for those without diarrhea. So I think my take home message is based on the statistics that you know, the CDC provided, this is clearly happening more often than we think. And you know, it sounds so dumb about how, you know, don't poop in water, but it happens more often than we think. Oh, yeah. And yeah, it's, it's a serious thing that can happen and it happens more often than we think. So just stay at home and practice good hygiene. Long story short, good hygiene, please, everybody. Please wash your hands. Please. Be smart. Be smart. Yeah. Please wash your hands. Don't use the bathroom in public places, specifically in water and yeah, your kids. Yeah. Monitor your kids, your goats. I learned a lot. Everything. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty gross disease. But I mean, you know what happens? Happens a lot. So I hope you guys learned something from this. Well, thank you. Thank you guys for all this information. Yeah. Thank you, Victoria. Anytime, guys.