Real-Life experience as nurse when cryptosporidium threatened our area's water supply

this is real. Was in the late 1990s. update - article appeared on Aug.25, 1998
I cannot find a link to the news report and editorial generated by this, but the reporter's name was Prashant Gopal. He was a cub reporter on a Delaware paper at the time, now much higher up the journalistic food chain.

Years ago a dairy barn fire in a nearby state threatened the water supply in Delaware. Runoff from the attempts to extinguish it went into a creek and into Newark's water source.
The fear was that cow feces might contain cryptosporidium, which can and does kill people who drink water contaminated with it.

What to do?

A letter was faxxed to local doctors - only some docs - and one of these letters came to someone I knew.

He said: Funny thing. They want us to monitor our patients closely for vomiting and diarrhea for the next weeks, and report any increase in these symptoms to health officials...

You better believe I got hold of that fax, from the wastebasket. it referenced contamination of the city water supply with Crypto after the barn fire.

in order to track the possible spread of crypto, the docs were to report symptoms!
Immunosuppressed patients MIGHT be advised to boil all water as a precaution..

I dropped off the fax at the local paper. they wanted confirmation from the doc it was addressed to, he was quite angry they wanted his name, not for publication, but as a background source.

he gave it.
The article appeared the next day.


The people of Newark were unknowingly made to be experimental subjects - let's see how many come down with this - until that article hit the paper. There was some degree of puzzlement that ALL people were not advised to boil water until the lab reports on the water supply came back clean.

in the end, cryptosporidium, responsible for many deaths in Wisconsin when it entered the water supply, did NOT make it into our water.

fast forward to now:

We are indeed guinea pigs to THEM. The Chinese are guinea pigs right now.

I do not trust anyone to look out for my health after that.

Immediately

Last Edited by beeches on 02/08/2020 12:06 PM