BALTIMORE — A year after E. coli turned up in Baltimore’s drinking water, a new parasite called cryptosporidium or “crypto” raised an alarm when it turned up at Druid Lake Reservoir.
“Humans and animals who are infected with crypto shed the parasite in their stool,” explained Acting Health Commissioner Mary Beth Haller.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Howard County were told to drink bottled water or to boil their drinking water for the time being, and unlike E. coli scare from last year, bottled water was not widely distributed.
“I want to figure out why exactly we didn’t go ahead and distribute water and make sure people knew what the resources were, because nobody knew what to do and we didn’t know what to do,” said Council Member Odette Ramos, “A lot of us used our own money to get our constituents water.”
From the time the first sample was collected containing the parasite until Public Works notified the public, nine days had passed.
It took a full week before the city even knew it had a problem, but crypto can be fatal and most symptoms, if someone gets ill from consuming the tainted water, could have come and gone by then.
“We have had more negative tests than we have had the one singular positive, and for most testing for E. coli, you actually have to have multiple positive tests before you move to a BWA or boiled water advisory,” said Chief Administrative Officer Faith Leach.
For now, the city has stepped up its testing from monthly to weekly hoping to save precious time if and when the parasite shows up again.
The current advisory in affect is in place for the immunocomproised.
For more information on cryptosporidium, click here.
