Re: [at-l] Giardia's dirty little secret. was water filters

[Tim Hewitt <thewitt@fairchildsemi.com>]

This is very misleading. Though I am no Doctor, and I don't play one on the
Internet, I have been diagnosed with Giardia twice in my life.

Once I contracted it from a suspect source that I should have known better
than to drink from unfiltered, and the second time was from drinking
unfiltered water in the middle of the winter from a hole in the ice on a lake
in northern Maine.

I was operating under the mis-information that the little beast would not be
alive in the middle of winter, under the ice. Wrongo Dano.

In both cases my personal hygene was not suspect, nor was the hygene of my
group members (all family - all well schooled and practiced in keeping clean
in the woods).

Flagyl is your friend - even if it does not appear to be at the time...

-Paddler

Thomas McGinnis wrote:
> 
>      And don't forget giardia's dirty little secret: it has a surprisingly
>      narrow temperature/viability range in the lifecycle stage to which
>      we're most commonly exposed. I didn't commit it to memory, but it's
>      available on the net (maybe below cited?) Bottom was like 50-60 degree
>      F range -- which would imply that any population in a given geographic
>      area would have to overwinter in a host. Top was like 120 degrees F
>      for total mortality in one hour -- which just a shade warmer than a
>      decent hot tub. Filter makers don't want you to know that, either.
>      Shhhhh! You don't need a $100, 1 lb. filter! You need a black water
>      bottle!
>
* From the Appalachian Trail Mailing List |  http://www.backcountry.net  *

==============================================================================