• Boil Water Alerts: The Science behind the scare
• Natural Disasters
• China Spends More Time Researching Giardia and Crypstosporidium
• H₂O Fact and Tech Tip

Every day there’s a new report of a regional requirement to boil water before consuming it from the tap. And whether it’s the presence of pathogens or non-pathogens, such as Cryptosporidium, Giardia, fecal coliforms, enterococci, or E.coli, each “bug” can be a huge disruption to one’s daily life—and safety.

For example, during the Boathouse International Triathlon event in Oklahoma City this year¹, over 45 athletes became sick (diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, and fever) after they swam the 1.5km leg of the race in the Oklahoma River. Thorough research identified the culprit: E.coli originating from the effects of human and animal waste in the water. The river tested especially high for the bacteria due to runoff from recent storms.

In crises like these, the region under the boil water alert has to find fast, efficient and cost-effective tests to determine when their water is once again safe to consume. And in most cases, authorities in these regions turn to IDEXX for water microbiology tests to identify the source and the issue causing the problem. Whether they use IDEXX Colilert®, Colilert®-18, Colisure®, Enterolert®, and/or Quanti-Tray®, the results are easy, rapid and accurate so the examiner can make an informed, safe decision about whether or not to lift the boil water alert.

Dave Jefferson, Inside Sales Representative for IDEXX, explained the details of a call he made to one of his customers after hearing that their town was under a boil water alert. “They were so busy with citizens’ calls that the mayor himself answered when I phoned city hall. I told him I wanted to offer him Colilert-18 or to at least make sure he knew a faster test was available. The mayor said that the local water resource authority was in fact using Colilert-18 to turn the situation around as fast as possible. E.coli was traced to a sample from one of their fire hydrants.”

It’s difficult to predict exactly when and where the next boiled water alert will occur. But it’s better to be prepared with a proven technology that works.

To learn more about IDEXX’s DST Technology, please visit www.idexx.com/view/xhtml/en_us/water/water-microbiology.jsf.

When a natural disaster occurs, the call goes out to volunteers and those with technical expertise to pull affected communities through. For example, Germany’s State Disaster Protection organization Technische Hilfswerk (THW), is made up of 80,000 people who dedicate their time to doing just that, nationally and internationally.

A recent earthquake in Iran got the attention of THW. Dr. Christiane Bettin, the doctor in charge of the Iranian response and also a THW volunteer said, “In the case of a natural disaster, it is most important that people have clean drinking water.” For that very reason, Dr. Bettin and her team brought mobile treatment units to produce drinking water and IDEXX’s Colilert-18, Enterolert-E, and SimPlate® to test all the water sources in Iran for total coliforms and E.coli, enterococci, and heterotrophs. She relied on IDEXX Water Microbiology products because they are easy to use and ensure rapid results—exactly what’s needed in a crisis situation.

Read more about THW’s work here: http://www.thw.bund.de/cln_036/nn_933000/EN/content/news/international/international__node.html__nnn=true

Cryptosporidiosis is an infection obtained through water (for example, swimming pools or contaminated water supplies) or earth that has come in contact with the feces of an infected person or animal. Symptoms can include watery diarrhea, stomach pains or cramps, and a low fever that appears two to 10 days after infection, and lasts up to two weeks.

Though the first case of human Cryptosporidiosis wasn’t recorded until 1976, it was quickly reported worldwide. The People’s Republic of China documented its first case of the infection in 1987. And since then, the reported number of Cryptosporidium diarrhea cases in China has only grown. Today, the infection affects 3.6% of all Chinese children, or 38 out of 1,086.

Not surprisingly, Chinese authorities mounted a vigorous response. The Province of Shanghai, for example, mandated testing for Giardia and Cryptosporidium in all waters in 2004. Their concern was well founded: raw water, source water and treated wastewater all showed traces of these “bugs.”

At the end of 2006, the Standard Method for Drinking Water in China was revised to include testing for Giardia and Cryptosporidium. Since then, two IDEXX products, Filta-Max® and Filta-Max xpress® (the unique capture and recovery filter technology for Cryptosporidium and Giardia) have been adopted as approved methods by China EPA.² Starting in 2009, Shanghai tests all of the source waters and treated waters using the Filta-Max system. And to save more time and offer more accurate results, the Chinese government changed their regulations to include use of the Filta-Max xpress system for research purposes. Once again proving that when it comes to peoples’ health, time is of the essence.

Learn more about Filta-Max or Filta-Max xpress here