Cryptosporidium / E Coli Contamination

I'm living in rural Montana working on a project and have pretty obviously gotten a crypto or e coli infection; my guess is from bad water as I seem to keep re-infecting.

I find it rather hilarious, as in the past year I've lived in rural Russia and Mexico and have not had water issues (taken basic precautions.)

I've now switched over to bottled water, but am still showering, etc. with the contaminated water. Any thoughts / suggestions on how to manage? I'm supposed to have 3.5 months in the same conditions before I wrap the project.

Cheers, thanks guys.
 

UK4X4

Expedition Leader
"I seem to keep re-infecting"

I'm guessing its not re-infection - its more likely a parasitical version where they go through a life cycle every 7-14 days

ie 2-3 days of bad tummy- then it goes away and then it comes back 7 days ish later


I've had similar in Venezuela and here in Colombia- some times after a few cycles it goes away- but sometimes

in bad cases the docs need to do a stool sample and pick a particular drug for your new hitch hikers !

Try a good HOT curry during your good days.........

Hot spiced food accompany the countried with worlds worst hygine .........the bad hygine came first- the curries and chillies came second to kill the resulting bacterias and parasites...

the people who did'nt eat spicy died......

Good luck with getting rid of your hitch hikers !
 

madmax718

Explorer
There's not much you can do. It depends on your needs. Standard precautions do apply, but how do you know its water borne?

It could be from your fruits and vegetables, which is a common source of ecoli.

I'd go on a cooked food only regime, and paper plates. Crypto is a hard bugger, and if you think about it, if your plates are washed with contaminated water- your going to be eating off contaminated surfaces.

Not knowing your living situation, Im only going to guess:

I'd do this: get 2 5 gallon containers for water. The homer bucket (or any 5 gallon food grade bucket is good).

Your working with two things here: a parasite, and a virus. Viruses are easy to kill, and a few drops of bleach will take care of it. Crypto doesn't kill easily, and is more problematic. Its rather large, so even cheap filters will filter them out.

The following options are just what I would do:
MSR miox mixed oxidant maker. Takes about 5 minutes to make enough solution for 5 gallons. MSR lost the licensing agreement, so you'd have to check ebay or other after market sources. 4 hours later, your gtg. If you treat both, it will give you good amounts of purified water.

Sawyer .02 filter (and bucket kit). This is a virus level filter, so be careful of anyone comparing it to standard filters. It can do up to 80 gallons a day, is back flushable. If the water has alot of particulates, this may clog quickly, so you may need to modify your setup (pre filter, settling, etc.).

Standard water filter + bleach= you can use any standard water filter, gravity filter, etc + a little bleach to kill off viruses.

If you can line dry your clothing you do not need to use filtered water- the sun will kill anything, given enough exposure (4+ hours).

As for showers, I'd use filtered water- A shower bag, or a nemo pressure shower system. You'd just have to be quick about your shower times.
 

spunky2268

Adventurer
Firegirl, if you've got crypto, I feel your pain. I was out of commission for about 3 weeks with it; lucky I got good care at home and frequent, weekly visits to the doctor. Nothing like having to show up at the Emergency Department you work at with severe dehydration because of the ****s. ED nurses and docs can be brutal. You really need to see a medical professional. Seeking medical advice from internet forums...well you get what you pay for. You need to get a stool sample to determine the critter you have (may be Giardia or something else), then the doc will prescribe something. My doc put me on Questran for the squirts, and Alinia to kill the crypto. A personal word about the Alinia - it made me hallucinate. I was playing with my girl's house cat (she didn't have one) and the walls would melt... AND I had to have two courses of the Alinia to kill the bastards! Filter, or better yet, boil all water that is used for anything that comes near your mouth. Better to take a break and come off the line for a couple of weeks, than to be hospitalized for that long. Best of luck and PM if you have anything else you'd like to ask.
 
Thanks so much, guys. This is one project I am ready to wrap, move on and heal up a bit.

UK4X4, good call on the life cycle. A doc just told me the same thing; can't believe I didn't think of that. Spiced curries are on the menu!

madmax718, a military friend sent me the Miox and it arrived in the post yesterday. Eager to give this thing a try.

spunky2268, filtering and boiling in effect! And thanks for the heads-up on Alinia; I'll avoid that one.

Cheers guys, and many thanks. Wishing every day there was some way to condition the system against stuff like this.
 

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