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Published Date: 2012-02-05 05:16:42
Subject: PRO> Cryptosporidiosis - Australia (QL)
Archive Number: 20120205.1033342

CRYPTOSPORIDIOSIS, AUSTRALIA (QUEENSLAND)
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Date: Sat, Feb 4, 2012
Source: Cairns Post [edited]
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2012/02/04/204101_local-news.html 


Outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in Cairns, Queensland, Australia
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Families have been warned to take extra vigilance with hygiene and watch for signs of illness after the outbreak of a serious and highly contagious children's stomach infection.

Queensland Health said the number of cases of the cryptosporidiosis intestinal disease had reached 51 in a month when the usual number of yearly cases was below 20.

Cryptosporidiosis, or crypto for short, is an infection caused by a microscopic parasite that is a common cause of acute diarrhoea in young children. "If you've got 51 cases confirmed in a lab, chances are there are hundreds out there," Public Health medical officer Dr Steven Donohue said.

Cairns and Hinterland Health District recorded 51 lab-tested cases of crypto in January [2012], Dr Donohue said. "In a normal year you might get 10 or 20 cases," he said, adding the last outbreak in Cairns was in 2008. Dr Donohue sent a warning letter to day care centres to alert them to the outbreak of crypto.

In the letter, Dr Donohue instructed day care centres to exclude children with diarrhoea until they have not had symptoms for 48 hours. He also recommended that swimming pools at day care centres be disinfected with adequate chlorination or refilled after each session.

Queensland Health is also in the process of notifying swimming pool operators about the health risk, Dr Donohue said. "We're not blaming the pools but they are a known factor in magnifying the outbreak," he said. "The pool operators should be very careful to make sure children with diarrhoea or dirty nappies are not in pools." Dr Donohue said children who have had diarrhoea should not swim in a public pool for at least 2 weeks after symptoms stop. Cairns Regional Council pools are tested regularly and would continue to be monitored closely, a spokeswoman said.

In May 2010, the parasite that causes crypto was detected in southern Cairns' water supply, prompting warnings at that time for thousands of residents to boil their drinking water. A council spokeswoman yesterday said the drinking water supply is regularly tested and there was no sign of the parasite that causes crypto in the water.

While crypto is generally not serious for most people, those with weakened immune systems could develop severe and long-lasting illness, which may contribute to death. The best protection from crypto is thorough hand washing before eating and after using the toilet, Dr Donohue said.

[Byline: Tarina White]

[Promed Mail from 
Health map alerts]

[The 2009 outbreak in Sydney (Mayne DJ et al. A community outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in Sydney associated with a public swimming facility: a case-control study. Interdiscip Perspect Infect Dis. 2011;2011:341065) was found to be due to infection at swimming pools and  was caused by _Cryptosporidium hominis_ subtype IbA10G2 [see ProMED ref. below].

Cryptosporidia in man and animals in Australia have recently been reviewed: 
Waldron LS et al. Molecular epidemiology, spatiotemporal analysis, and ecology of sporadic human cryptosporidiosis in Australia. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2011;77:7757-65).

HealthMap location: http://healthmap.org/r/1Km3 - Mod. EP]

[Life cycle diagram:
http://dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/images/ParasiteImages/A-F/Cryptosporidiosis/Cryptosporidium_LifeCycle.gif
- Mod.JW]

See Also

2009
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Cryptosporidiosis - Australia (02): (NS): 20090401.1259
Cryptosporidiosis - Australia (NS) 20090301.0847
2007
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Cryptosporidiosis - Australia (SA) (02): comments 20070324.1029
Cryptosporidiosis - Australia (SA): corr. 20070321.0995
Cryptosporidiosis - Australia (SA) 20070321.0992
2005
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Cryptosporidiosis, swimming pools - Australia (NSW) 20050617.1710
1998
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Cryptosporidiosis - Australia (New South Wales) (03) 19980418.0714
Cryptosporidiosis - Australia (Victoria) (02) 19980404.0623]
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