{"id":7976,"date":"2023-09-22T05:28:44","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T17:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7976"},"modified":"2023-09-22T05:28:44","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T17:28:44","slug":"cryptosporidium-spreading-in-queenstown-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7976","title":{"rendered":"Cryptosporidium spreading in Queenstown: What you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Explainer<\/i>\u00a0– Cases of cryptosporidium in Queenstown are rising and boil water notices have been issued for the town and nearby Frankton.<\/p>\n

As of Thursday evening, 21 cases have been confirmed, but more could well be in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

Illnesses in the area began to be reported on social media from early September, but cryptosporidium was only identified as the cause on Monday.<\/p>\n

Te Whatu Ora \/ Health New Zealand is asking people who have been in Queenstown in the past 13 days experiencing a gastric upset to inform their GP.<\/p>\n

But what is cryptosporidium, how seriously can it affect a person, and what can people do to keep themselves safe?<\/p>\n

RNZ is here to clear it all up.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

About 44,708 people in Queenstown use the town supply water and must boil it to protect themselves from cryptosporidium.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Marika Khabazi<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What is cryptosporidium?<\/h3>\n

Cryptosporidium is a tiny parasitic type of protozoa.<\/p>\n

The parasite can infect people through water contaminated with human or animal faeces or by touching your mouth with contaminated hands.<\/p>\n

People or animals who have cryptosporidium can pass on the parasites in their poo<\/p>\n

The parasites can contaminate soil, food or water, or surfaces.<\/p>\n

Cryptosporidium can live in the environment for long periods, especially in lakes, rivers, streams and roof water.<\/p>\n

University of Otago parasitologist Bruce Russell said cryptosporidium could remain infectious after chlorine treatment of water supplies, but boiling killed it.<\/p>\n

“They’re got hard little shells that even resist our stomach acid, so they’re very tough little customers.<\/p>\n

“They need special treatment – usually UV and some sort of filtration,” Russell said.<\/p>\n

The latest outbreak was not unexpected, he said.<\/p>\n

“This preventable disease is one of the most important (yet neglected) causes of gastro in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

“We get around 500 to 1000 cases every year.<\/p>\n

“The highest rates of cryptosporidium are seen in South Canterbury, Southern, Taranaki and Waikato DHBs,” Russell said.<\/p>\n

Massey University laboratory technician Anthony Pita said it could also be passed from person to person through the “fecal-oral route”.<\/p>\n

While boiling water would reduce the risks, household transmission of the disease was still possible, Pita said.<\/p>\n

“The largest Cryptosporidium outbreak was recorded in Milwaukee in 1993 where an estimated 400,000 people were infected,” he said.<\/p>\n

RNZ<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Explainer\u00a0– Cases of cryptosporidium in Queenstown are rising and boil water notices have been issued for the town and nearby Frankton. As of Thursday evening, 21 cases have been confirmed, but more could well be in the pipeline. Illnesses in the area began to be reported on social media from early September, but cryptosporidium was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7978,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7976\/revisions\/7978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}