SHARE
COPY LINK
ÖSTERSUND WATER NIGHTMARE

DISEASE

Swedish city takes fight to water parasite

Ozone and chlorine are among the measures deployed by Östersund municipality in northern Sweden to try kill off the parasite which has afflicted the stomachs of thousands of residents and rendered the water undrinkable.

Swedish city takes fight to water parasite

Many Östersund residents have called the municipality to report that they have noticed the strong smell of chlorine in the water. But this is nothing to worry about, underlined Jörgen Vikström at the municipality.

“It is a question of trying to make the living conditions of the parasite as poor as possible. That is why we use ozone, cut the pH value, and change the chlorine level,” he said.

The municipality has also confirmed that it will allow sector organisation Svenskt Vatten to inspect the city’s water system in response to expert opinion that the system is poorly constructed with intake and outtake points in the Storsjön lake too close to one another.

“There have emerged details in certain media that our construction and works have been wrongly constructed. We plan to consult Svenskt Vatten, which is an independent expert, to check if our system is correct,” Bengt Marsh at the municipality said to the local Östersunds Posten daily.

According to Jari Hiltula, the head of environment policy at the municipality, the source of the parasite is thought to be the water treatment works in Göviken.

The Local reported on Tuesday that a local prosecutor has launched a probe into possible criminal negligence, while police closely follow the work being carried out to track how the Cryptosporidium parasite ended up in Östersund’s drinking water.

More than 5,000 residents have taken ill after ingesting water from the city’s water supply, many suffering from diarrhea, vomiting, and severe stomach cramps.

Residents of the city, roughly 50,000 of whom are connected to the municipal water system, can expect to have to boil tap water for several weeks, an expert with the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (Smittskyddsinstitutet) told the TT news agency.

Once the source of the parasite has been found and shut off, it will take at least a month before it’s possible to drink water directly from the tap.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

DISEASE

Eight deaths in southern Germany blamed on shrew-borne disease

Eight cases of the Borna virus, transmitted by shrews, have been identified in encephalitis patients who died between 1999 and 2019, researchers said Wednesday.

Eight deaths in southern Germany blamed on shrew-borne disease
A horse in a meadow at sunset in Tettnang, Baden-Württemberg. People in rural areas have been most susceptible to the virus. Photo: DPA

All eight cases occurred in southern Germany, mostly among people living in rural or semi-rural areas and in regular contact with animals, they reported in The Lancet, a medical journal.

Carried by the bicoloured white-toothed shrew, the virus triggers an inflammation of the brain, and is known to affect horses and sheep.

The researchers speculated that it could be transmitted by house cats that had come into contact with infected shrews.

Symptoms start with fever, headaches and confusion, and progress to memory loss, convulsions and loss of consciousness.

READ ALSO: Where the flu epidemic has been hitting Germany the hardest

There is no known treatment for the disease, which gets its name from a town in Germany and was first described in the late 18th century.

In the eight newly identified cases, patients fell into a coma and died 16 to 57 days after hospital admission.

“Our findings indicate that Borna disease virus infection has to be considered a severe and potentially lethal human disease transmitted from a wildlife reservoir,” said co-author Barbara Schmidt from Regensburg University Hospital.

“It appears to have occurred unnoticed in humans for at least decades, and may have caused other unexplained cases of encephalitis in regions where the virus is endemic in the host shrew population.”

The scientists recommended testing for Borna virus in patients who suffer rapid deterioration of their nervous systems in order to establish the scale of infection among humans.

“It is still relatively rare in absolute numbers, but it might be behind a larger proportion of unexplained severe-to-fatal encephalitis cases,” said co-author Martin Beer from the Friedrich-Löffler Institute.

“Only more tests on patients with severe or even deadly encephalitis will find this out.”

The study, led by Hans Helmut Niller of the Institute of Microbiology and Hygiene in Regensburg, examined the brain tissue of 56 patients who developed encephalitis-like symptoms at some point over the last two decades.

The new findings bring the total number of confirmed Borna cases in southern Germany — all fatal — to 14.

The researchers were not able to definitively establish how the Borna virus was transmitted to humans, but victims for which such information was available lived in rural settings around animals.

“In at least seven cases, close contact with cats was reported,” they said in a statement.

“When cats hunt, they might bring shrews into their homes, exposing humans to them.”

The genetic profiles of all eight of the new cases were all distinct and matched the profile of locally infected shrews or horses, suggesting the infections occurred independently.

READ ALSO: World under-prepared for next serious epidemic, German health minister warns

SHOW COMMENTS