Book: Don't Touch That Doorknob!
Cryptosporidium lives happily
in water, but can also live in wild animals, and certain domestic animals,
particularly
young cattle (calves). Thus, infected animals are the main
source of maintaining the distribution of the bug in the environment.
Usually, this bug is not a problem (has been around a long, long, time -
nothing new); but, sometimes this little critter can substantially
increase in number, and some of them convert to a cyst form. The cyst form
is where the problem arises. This form of the bug is particularly
resistant to the normal chemical treatments of our drinking water which
are used to keep our water safe; and, if a cyst form is ingested by an
animal, or us, it will convert to a normal kind of cellular form of the
bug (called a vegetative cell), divide, and may
cause an infection, then disease. Health departments around the nation
are taking a very close look for this bug, even more closely than is
always done, anyway. You can be assured that the people who need to know
about this potential problem, do know about it. We have a terrific
arrangement in this nation which allows almost instant transfer of
any information which may be important to the health of our
citizens. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, keeps
a 24-hr per day look-out for anything that might involve any kind of
disease, and generates warnings and procedures to be used to combat the
problem, to every single county/city health department in the
country. Not bad, huh?
Book: Don't Touch That Doorknob!