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ÖSTERSUND WATER NIGHTMARE

DISEASE

Source found for stomach bug outbreak

The source of the intestinal parasite that sickened thousands in the town of Östersund in northern Sweden has been identified, according to city officials.

Published: 9 December 2010 09:27 CET
Source found for stomach bug outbreak

Östersund municipality believe the Cryptosporidium parasite entered the municipal water system originated in a multi-family dwelling in the city’s Odensala neighbourhood.

“We’ve found high levels of the parasite in the connection to this source. I can’t say much more. We’ve handed over the information to the police who are responsible for the investigation. A property owner will also be contacted by (municipal water administrator) Vatten Östersund,” said Östersund environmental head Jari Hiltula to the TT news agency.

The flow from the contamination source has since been shut off.

Police in Jämtland county say they suspect the building in Odensala is the source of the contamination. City administrator Bengt Marsh confirmed that the municipality has given information to the police that the source of the parasite is a single building.

According to the local Östersunds Posten (OP) newspaper, police suspect that a sewage line leading away from the building was mistakenly connected to a rainwater drainage system.

“It looks like the sewage pipe wasn’t connected properly,” Andrew Sörensson, an environmental crimes investigator with the Östersund police, told the newspaper.

The worst of the wave of illnesses caused by the Cryptosporidium parasite appears to be over. Nevertheless, the municipality’s website has received an additional 500 reports of people suffering from stomach problems.

Altogether, 11,200 people have reported coming down with symptoms likely caused by the parasite.

On Wednesday afternoon, ultra-violet equipment arrived in Östersund which will be placed in the city’s water treatment plant to help kill off the parasite.

“We’re going to work with the supplier to get it up and running as fast as we can. I don’t want to speculate about how long it might take,” said Richard Jonsson, head of Vatten Östersund, to TT.

Both the police as well as city officials involved in the investigation say it remains unclear of the building in question is the contamination source, or if there may be other sources for the parasite.

Testing to gather more evidence is ongoing.

Tests taken by police have been sent to Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science (Statens kriminaltekniska laboratorium – SKL) for analysis and the police in Jämtland expect it to take a few weeks for the results are in.

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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.

Published: 8 January 2020 13:18 CET
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

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