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Thread: Giardia

  1. #21

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    Drink water as close to the point it comes out the ground as possible, with no camping or livestock upstream/above it, and generally risk is very small.

    We have existed on this earth for a long long time, and somehow we got by without filters and chemicals. Animals do quite well without them too today.

    We also didnt have toilet paper!!!! Something else totally un-needed.

  2. #22
    Registered User swjohnsey's Avatar
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    My guess is that most of the giardia information comes from the folks sellin' filters and chemicals. No toilet paper for me.

  3. #23

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    Well, at least you two are ready if things get this bad here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...rity-cuts.html

    Toilet paper restrictions imposed on schoolchildren in Spain in latest austerity cuts

    The northeastern region has been ordered to rein in its deficit and has embarked on a series of stringent austerity cuts.

    The latest edict issued by the region’s ministry of education instructs state schools to cut “excessive consumption” of toilet roll among pupils and limit the quota to a maximum of 25 metres per child per month.

    This most recent penny saving measure comes amid widespread cuts to education budgets across Spain that has led to regular protests in the streets by teachers.

    Doctors in debt laden Catalonia have also been called out on strike in recent weeks angry at health budget cuts that have left public hospitals over stretched.

    Spain’s autonomous regions have been forced by the central government to reduce their spending to help meet the nation’s budget deficit reduction target.


    NOTE TO THE OP:You're primary concern is not giardia -- it's lyme disease, by far.

  4. #24
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    I use a Steripen but one thing I would like to add to the conversation, has always made me interested or think about the 'don't worry about treating it' crowd. I went on a 7 day elk hunt 3 years ago on a sheep farm private ranch in Colorado. The cabin us hunters stayed in had running water and we all drank from it obviously, no reason not to. When my group was leaving someone commented that the water up there was so good, cold and clean tasting. They said yep, comes right from that stream right there. We were all like huh? Is it filtered? Nope. Is it treated in any way? Nope, it's pumped straight out of that stream.

    That was interesting because I know for a fact, because I saw them, that sheep were grazing up that drainage all around that stream. I also saw elk up there and old beaver dams. Everyone drank that water all week, nobody got sick.

    Now Im not saying you cant get sick from water I just have always thought back on that thinking of all that water I drank with no problem.

  5. #25
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    You ever had a parasite? And I'm not talking about a wife...

    No Fun.

  6. #26
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    Diseases like giarda and other parasitic diseases come from waste that already contains the disease. You are most likely to get it from water sources that run through cow fields or where diseased animals have defecated. I lived in south America for a few years, and the AT is comparably cleaner and much less infested with such diseases.
    If you're unsure, just get a water filter. It's pretty impossibel to say that one particular source is infested while another is not becasue no one out there testing and even if they were it would change week to week.

  7. #27

    Default Some gathered scientific data on Giardia

    I wrote a blog post on the subject

    The largest study specific to the AT (280 hikers) that I could find says this:

    Diarrhea is the most common illness limiting long-distance hikers. Hikers should purify water routinely, avoiding using untreated surface water. The risk of gastrointestinal illness can also be reduced by maintaining personal hygiene practices and cleaning cookware.

    Although the abstract doesn't specifically address Giardia, Giardia exists almost anywhere groups of people exist.

    Two more sources:

    I was able to find a doctor in town who was familiar with the AT thru hikers and recognized immediately that I had been infected with the Giardia parasite

    In our study, the two sites along the Appalachian corridor collectively tested positive for giardia cysts 50 percent of the time

  8. #28
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    Thanks for sharing Colter!

    Now I'm waiting for someone to read and misinterpret the one resource you included (shown under "The Cure") and start claiming that eating a diet high in bananas will prevent Giardia..........

    You know it's only a matter of time.
    Last edited by Spokes; 12-08-2011 at 14:45.

  9. #29
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    I think a lot of diarrea on the trail is caused by eating large amounts of Mexican food in trail towns.


    I also have always thought it's funny that somehow a spring seems safer if someone has boxed it in or driven a pipe in the ground so that the water is running out of the pipe.
    Lemni Skate away

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  10. #30
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    The more I hike and the more experiance I get the less I treat water. When I can see where it comes out of the ground I do not treat. If its a stream at a road crossing I'll treat. If I'm using it for cooking I don't treat. I have had the same bottle of Aquamira for three years and its still 1/2 full about 50 days on the trail.
    If it do'nt eat you or kill you it makes you stronger
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  11. #31
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    I got Giardia on my thru hike in 2010. Picked it up somewhere in NY. We treated all of the water we got from water sources. We did not treat water that was left roadside by trail angels, assuming that it didn't need to be treated.

    It was the worst 5 days (until I got treatment) of our entire hike! Lost 10 pounds though

  12. #32

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lemni Skate View Post
    I think a lot of diarrea on the trail is caused by eating large amounts of Mexican food in trail towns.


    I also have always thought it's funny that somehow a spring seems safer if someone has boxed it in or driven a pipe in the ground so that the water is running out of the pipe.
    Stop it - you're THINKING!
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  13. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by Creek Dancer View Post
    LOL! This happened to me at Trail Days. I thru hiker was trying to pass off his huge bag or GORP. Said he was tired of eating it and asked me if I wanted it. I politely declined.
    Is it actually possible to contract giardia from something other than a water source?

  14. #34
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    Yes, it is very possible to contract Giardia from ANYTHING that has had contact with contaminated feces. It is good practice to assume all feces is infected. So hiker A takes a poo and doesnt clean his hands then eats his gorp then offers Hiker B said gorp, well hiker B you may have just contracted giardia. Food is the most common transmission point outside of water.
    "We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." George Orwell

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    Oh, and for the people that don't wash/clean their hands. It isn't a chunk of feces we are concerned about, it's the tiny almost microscopic flecks that are barely visible if visible at all. Just because you didn't smear it all over your hand like a monkey doesn't mean you didn't get any on it at all.
    "We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." George Orwell

  16. #36
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    There is so much bad info about Giardia out there that its tough to sort it out. While the OP was looking for AT data this study done up in the Sierra was the best info I have ever come across on the subject. Unfortunately for me I found it AFTER I picked up Giardia south of Sonora Pass in an area mentioned in the article. Many of the points would also apply to the AT.

    http://www.modbee.com/2010/05/08/115...s-streams.html

  17. #37

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    Quote Originally Posted by Colter View Post
    I wrote a blog post on the subject

    The largest study specific to the AT (280 hikers) that I could find says this:

    Diarrhea is the most common illness limiting long-distance hikers. Hikers should purify water routinely, avoiding using untreated surface water. The risk of gastrointestinal illness can also be reduced by maintaining personal hygiene practices and cleaning cookware.

    Although the abstract doesn't specifically address Giardia, Giardia exists almost anywhere groups of people exist.

    Two more sources:

    I was able to find a doctor in town who was familiar with the AT thru hikers and recognized immediately that I had been infected with the Giardia parasite

    In our study, the two sites along the Appalachian corridor collectively tested positive for giardia cysts 50 percent of the time
    The writer of the article that the second link sends you to describes exactly the symptoms I had back in the late 1980s. You've never puked until you puke across the room (bathroom, thankfully, in my case). Often it was a guessing game as to whether I needed to kneel or sit when I got to the john. Several times I guessed wrong! I know, it should be wrongly, but it sounds weird.
    As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn back from his way and live. Ezekiel 33:11

  18. #38
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    I agree with the view that your most likely tomget Giardia from dirty hikers than water. I filter most often but not springs etc. There are plenty of other intestinal baddies you can get besides Giardia but most go away on their own or with a dose or two of Imodium. really the problem is sometimes hikers wipe their butt and dont disinfect. Try note to share their Gorp.
    Everything is in Walking Distance

  19. #39
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    K-Squared wrote:
    "I got Giardia on my thru hike in 2010. Picked it up somewhere in NY."
    Okay, that got my attention. I got something giardia-like in New York too, and also in 2010 --- or at least I got sick in NY. I can't say where I picked it up, and suspect that few people can be certain of that.

    I was ultimately off-trail for 16 days (this is NOT at all like the diarrhea one can presumeably get from eating too much spicy Mexican food as Lemni Skate suggested). I have no idea if it was 'giardia' or some other gut cootie --- in fact, I'll carefully claim that I don't know (I wasn't tested), just that it was a butt kicker that made it a challenge to continue and finish the trip.

    K-Squared, do you in fact know that it was Giardia that you got, i.e., were you tested, with lab results specifically stating Giardia? To be clear, I'm not 'challenging' you here, just curious, speculating that perhaps you and I encountered the same source. The first symptoms I had showed up around May 22nd on the day that I crossed into NY state: http://postholer.com/journal/viewJou...entry_id=15386
    So given the time required for various intestinal bad things to show up after exposure, it's probably more likely that I got sick in PA --- or perhaps during the rental-car road trip that my trail partner and I took to go to Trail Days (!). No real way to know.
    Gadget
    PCT: 2008 NOBO, AT: 2010 NOBO, CDT: 2011 SOBO, PNT: 2014+2016

  20. #40

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    A good friend was an ER Dr. in Franklin NC for years. The experience he related to me confirms this.

    Quote Originally Posted by Colter View Post
    I wrote a blog post on the subject

    The largest study specific to the AT (280 hikers) that I could find says this:

    Diarrhea is the most common illness limiting long-distance hikers. Hikers should purify water routinely, avoiding using untreated surface water. The risk of gastrointestinal illness can also be reduced by maintaining personal hygiene practices and cleaning cookware.

    Although the abstract doesn't specifically address Giardia, Giardia exists almost anywhere groups of people exist.

    Two more sources:

    I was able to find a doctor in town who was familiar with the AT thru hikers and recognized immediately that I had been infected with the Giardia parasite

    In our study, the two sites along the Appalachian corridor collectively tested positive for giardia cysts 50 percent of the time

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