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ÖSTERSUND WATER NIGHTMARE

SMITTSKYDDSINSTITUTET

Swedish city traces source of water parasite

Tests on the water system of Östersund in northern Sweden have revealed an area with high levels of the Cryptosporidium parasite which has left thousands of people ill and the city's water undrinkable.

Published: 2 December 2010 15:04 CET
Swedish city traces source of water parasite

The municipality hopes that the tests have found the source of the contamination, according to a statement on Thursday.

Östersund municipality is now considering how the area can be sealed off so that the parasite does not continue to reach the water treatment plant, it was revealed at the press conference.

Those responsible at the municipality would not reveal if the area was found in water or on land.

The details of the tests were passed on to police and prosecutors this morning.

Nearly one in ten residents of Östersund has now been hit by a stomach bug caused by the parasite in the municipal water supply.

By midnight on Wednesday, approximately 6500 people had notified a hotline on the municipality’s website that they have or have had stomach problems in recent days.

“There are quite a few, it’s almost one in ten people living in the municipality. The figure given yesterday was 5700,” said Jorgen Vikström at the municipality.

Two operating rooms at Östersund Hospital are today closed due to the rampaging stomache flu.

The infection has hit hospital staff – with almost 200 workers at home from work on Thursday, according to Sveriges Television (SVT). Hospital management expects an increasing number of sick staff over the next few days.

The hospital has 3000 liters of clean water driven in every day in order to secure water supplies.

The results of tests on samples of water taken from a municipal wastewater treatment plant are expected to be delivered on Thursday. It is hoped that the tests will provide confirmation on whether the plant is the source of the parasite infection.

The first tests of water samples taken from the plant showed no traces of the parasite, but it was later discovered that mistakes were made when the samples were collected and it had to be repeated.

The analysis of water samples carried out by the Swedish Institute of Infectious Disease Control (Smittskyddsinstitutet – SMI).

In addition to water samples from the treatment plant Östersund municipality’s environmental office has in recent days collected a large number of samples in the plant’s vicinity as well as samples of effluents from streams and storm sewers in the Storsjön lake.

“Information on the new test be given at a press conference, probably in the afternoon,” said Jorgen Vikström.

“However, I do not know if there will be any information on what the results show. I do not know if the answers will be ready by then. There is a lot of pressure on the institute at the moment due to the Östersund tests,” he said.

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E. COLI

More EHEC cases reported in Sweden

More Swedes have been infected with the virulent enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) bacteria which some health experts believe comes from an entirely new strain of the bacteria.

Published: 3 June 2011 07:17 CEST
More EHEC cases reported in Sweden

So far, 46 Swedes have been infected with and all of them are believed to have been infected while visiting Germany.

Of the Swedes suffering from EHEC, 15 have been diagnosed with the serious complication haemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), including a woman from Borås who died on Tuesday.

On Thursday, another person in Germany died after being infected by EHEC, according to the AFP news agency, marking the 18th fatality since the outbreak began.

More than 2,000 people in ten European countries have reported being sickened by the bacteria in the last month.

At the same time, officials at the World Health Organisation (WHO) believe the current wave of EHEC infections involves a strain unseen in any previous outbreak.

“This strain has never been seen in an outbreak situation before,” said WHO spokesperson Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, according to the Reuters news agency.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has said that it has identified the strain and confirmed that it’s a very rare.

The ECDC emphasised as well that the source of the outbreak remains unknown. Initially, health authorities in Germany had thought that cucumbers from Spain were to blame.

While the risk of the disease spreading further in Sweden is thought to be small, the infectious disease division of the city of Gothenburg in western Sweden believes that there will be a continued rise in the number of reported cases of Swedes infected with EHEC as more and more people go to get tested.

“But also because a number of travelers will be returning from Germany,” said infectious diseases doctor Leif Dotevall to the TT news agency.

A woman in hospital in Jönköping in central Sweden remains in very serious condition, as do three people receiving care at Gothenburg’s Sahlgrenska hospital.

Another person has been placed in the intensive care ward of a hospital in Varberg in western Sweden.

Meanwhile, Russia announced on Thursday it was stopping the import of fresh vegetables from all EU member states in the wake of the EHEC outbreak.

But the hunt for the source of the outbreak is still going on and on Friday authorities announced that meat will now also be tested.

According to Lars Plym Forsell at the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control (Smittskyddsinstitutet), although the focus is still on tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce, scientists are now starting to test other products, including meat products.

“And of course they are still continuing to interview those that have been taken ill to zone in on what they have in common,” Plym Forsell told Sveriges Radio (SR) on Friday.

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