A school in UK’s Brixham has been forced to shut after hundreds of people in the town were struck down with a diarrhoea bug caused by contaminated tap water. As per a Metro report, the illness is believed to be linked to cryptosporidium, a parasitic bug that causes severe stomach issues.

The parasite latches onto human intestines and can cause gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses. It can spread through swimming in or consuming contaminated water, but can also be passed on in food. Symptoms include watery diarrhoea, stomach pains, nausea or vomiting, a mild fever, and loss of appetite. An expert warned that those struck down by the parasite could be ill for up to a month. 

Residents in Brixham, Boohay, Kingswear, Roseland and North East Paignton in Devon have now been advised not to drink directly from the tap and boil it before consumption. 

Tanya Matthews, who lives in Ocean View, claims every home in her street has come down with the same symptoms. She told DevonLive: “I started having stomach cramps and explosive diarrhoea nine days ago and it has been the same every day since. I started to feel a little bit better yesterday than today [May 14] it hit me again.”

As a result, people have been panic-buying bottled water. It is unclear where the parasite came from, and how it got into the water supply.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has announced it is collaborating with local councils to probe the outbreak. South West Water has confirmed that its water quality tests in Brixham have so far returned clear results.

South West Water commented: “We are working with public health partners to urgently investigate the source. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and will continue to keep customers and businesses updated.”

The water firm further stated: ”Customers in Alston and the Hillhead area of Brixham are advised to boil their drinking water before consuming following new test results for cryptosporidium. We are issuing this as a precaution following small traces of the organism identified overnight and this morning. We are working with public health partners to urgently investigate the source. For those customers registered for Priority Services we will be delivering bottled water to your address. ”

In the meantime, emergency bottled water stations have been set up for residents.

Alston and the Hillhead area of Brixham
We have set up a bottled water collection point at Broadsands Car Park TQ4 6HX which will be open until 10pm tonight and tomorrow (16/05/2024) from 6am – 9pm. In the meantime, we are delivering bottled water to vulnerable customers. pic.twitter.com/qLgVYYI8qC

— South West Water (@SouthWestWater) May 15, 2024

Professor Paul Hunter, a specialist in microbiology and infectious disease, said cases would continue to climb even after the source was found.

He said, “It’s difficult to know how big these outbreaks turn out to be and it depends on whether the contamination event is a very short-lived thing. The difficulty here is that cryptosporidium can take up to about 10 days before you become ill, so even if they stop the infection today we’d still see new cases occurring for at least another week to 10 days.”

There is no specific treatment for the bug, but patients are advised to drink plenty of fluids and rehydrate.

This undated photo supplied by Canberra Health Services, shows a parasite in a specimen jar at a Canberra hospital in Australia.
| Photo Credit: AP

A neurosurgeon investigating a woman’s mystery symptoms in an Australian hospital says she plucked a wriggling worm from the patient’s brain.

Surgeon Hari Priya Bandi was performing a biopsy through a hole in the 64-year-old patient’s skull at Canberra Hospital last year when she used forceps to pull out the parasite, which measured 8 centimetres, or 3 inches.

“I just thought: ‘What is that? It doesn’t make any sense. But it’s alive and moving,’” Dr. Bandi was quoted on August 29 in The Canberra Times newspaper.

“It continued to move with vigour. We all felt a bit sick,” Dr. Bandi added of her operating team.

The creature was the larva of an Australian native roundworm not previously known to be a human parasite, named Ophidascaris robertsi. The worms are commonly found in carpet pythons.

Dr. Bandi and Canberra infectious diseases physician Sanjaya Senanayake are authors of an article about the extraordinary medical case published in the latest edition of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Senanayake said he was on duty at the hospital in June last year when the worm was found.

“I got a call saying: ‘We’ve got a patient with an infection problem. We’ve just removed a live worm from this patient’s brain,’” Dr. Senanayake told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The woman had been admitted to the hospital after experiencing forgetfulness and worsening depression over three months. Scans showed changes in her brain.

A year earlier, she had been admitted to her local hospital in southeast New South Wales state with symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhea, a dry cough and night sweats.

Dr. Senanayake said the brain biopsy was expected to reveal a cancer or an abscess.

“This patient had been treated… for what was a mystery illness that we thought ultimately was an immunological condition because we hadn’t been able to find a parasite before and then out of nowhere, this big lump appeared in the frontal part of her brain,” Dr. Senanayake said.

“Suddenly, with her [Bandi’s] forceps, she’s picking up this thing that’s wriggling. She and everyone in that operating theatre were absolutely stunned,” Dr. Senanayake added.

Six months after the worm was removed, the patient’s neuropsychiatric symptoms had improved but persisted, the journal article said.

She had returned home but remains under medical observation. Details of her current condition have not been made public.

The worms’ eggs are commonly shed in snake droppings which contaminate grass eaten by small mammals. The life cycle continues as other snakes eat the mammals.

The woman lives near a carpet python habitat and forages for native vegetation called warrigal greens to cook.
While she had no direct contact with snakes, scientists hypothesise that she consumed the eggs from the vegetation or her contaminated hands.