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Cryptosporidium.


dogginut

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[quote user="dogginut"]Can anyone tell me if there is a test for Cryptosporidium. I have heard that it is resistant to chlorine treatment. It can cause bad diarrhea.
[/quote]

Not as a DIY kit that I am aware of, you can buy dip slide kits that test for bacterial growth of all kinds. If the count (proliferation) of bacteria is showing too high then a second microbacterial count can be carried out at a local lab of which there are lots in France depending of course on where you are (try asking the pharmacie)  The lab will require a sample of water and will try to grow the bacteria in an incubator and separate out the various strains that they find.  When I tried out a new system on my pool I had these tests carried out twice a year cost then was about €45

Crypto is thought to come from faecal accidents and as you said it's very resistant to chlorine, the general thinking is to filter the oocysts out of the water, sand is not up to the job as the Crypto oocysts are too small and pass straight through the filter so proper continuous flocculation and backwash is required for some time together with an increase in the chlorine level to aid the situation. Another of the parasites which cause diarrhea is Giardia and that would be checked too in a test at a lab and is generally more common.  If this is an outdoor pool the the sunlight UV will go some way to destroying the parasites and indoor pools could be fitted with a UV light chamber for this purpose

Simply put anyone who has had an upset tummy in the last two weeks should not use a pool, there are a few cases of whole areas being affected by just one family, in one case when a family who recently returned from their holiday visited a local pool and infected that it was closed for disinfection they moved to another as they loved swimming and caused the closure of that one too. The number of other people effected was staggering.

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Cryptosporidium parvum is not a bacteria, but is a protozoan oocyst.  So bacterial tests won't check for it.  It is only introduced into swimming pool water from an infected person who has a loose diarrhea accident.  You can read more about this parasite at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website.  Quite frankly, in a residential swimming pool, I wouldn't worry about it.  Commercial/public pools, on the other hand, don't always have tight control over who swims in them and they don't always have the supplemental systems needed for killing or removing Crypto (UV, ozone, coagulation/filtration).

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When I lived near Abingdon up to 1992, for one year I had recurrent "mild" diarrhea. (I once got noro when a PhD student kissed me straght after she got off a med cruise. That was "bad" diarrhea).

I tried everything over 6 months to find out what was up with my gut, eliminating this that and the other. Then one evening on Central News, they revealed that Thames Water had been slipping us all cryptosporidium for the last year but that it

"Only affects infants and the elderly".

i.e. the usual lying crap from water companies when they poison their customers.

They upped the chlorine (to satisfy those who didnt know it was useless) and popped something else obnoxious into the supply, and since then, I have never, ever drunk from an English tap or used ice cubes from one. My mild d stopped within weeks.

I am sure a miscreant could unknowingly introduce it into your pool, but it would be a rare shot.

I shall just hose down my visitors if they want a swim. . . .
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It is estimated that 1 gram of faecal matter is brought in by each (unshowered) bather

[quote user="Robin"] (I once got noro when a PhD student kissed me straight after she got off a med cruise. That was "bad" diarrhea). . . . .[/quote]

Take it from your statement you've never kissed another woman in case you get noro again too after all that was "bad"  [:D]

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ahah Théière! So if 29 people jump into the pool and one drowns, there is no loss of weight. I'm a bit worried that unwashed, we all have 1 ml of that stuff on us.

I guess Tamsin was just about worth a dose of noro. . . ;) I still take chances . . .
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