Giardia.

[Richpips]

I've always been a drink water untreated type in the hills.

However I may change my view. One of my friends who's been unwell since a May trip to the Lakes and Jura has just had Giardia diagnosed.

Some background on Giardia - https://thesummitregister.com/water-tre ... g-giardia/

[In Reverse]

Anything more sinister about it than any other bacterial gut infection Rich? Not implying anything just that there's not much in that link. Obviously any parasite in the intestines is never going to be great...

I'm the same as you - never treat water, just rely on a bit of nous on where to get it from and (I suppose) a bit of luck.

[Richpips]

Anything more sinister about it than any other bacterial gut infection Rich?

The only thing that is sinister is that traditionally, it is a disease that you'd more likely encounter overseas. I believe Beavers in the US are a carrier.

Though anything that shits in water, Deer are carriers over here.

[lune ranger]

This year with hot weather and low water levels everyone ought to be treating any water they get from a wild source.
Giardia is probably not as bad as a bunch of other nasties in the general environment in the UK such as cryptosporidium or leptospirosis (Weils disease) which will be loving conditions right now

[Alpinum]

Tricky thing about giardiasis is the symptoms which often can be recurrent.

This can delay treatment because the patient think he/she's okay again.

Besides that it's not as pathogenic as many other belly bugs. Not much to worry about. Treatment is short and easy too.

[benp1]

The thing I was getting worried about was blue-green algae. From what I read no filter would deal with that?

I filter everything these days

[Scud]

For the weight,. i've been using one of the small Steripens ever since drinking water on Dartmoor then riding further upstream to see a dead sheep close by.

[whitestone]

I picked Giardia up on a trip to Pakistan. Not pleasant but as Gian says, easily treated. In my case symptoms were periodic: a couple of days on (err literally!) and then a couple off.

[Bearbonesnorm]

This year with hot weather and low water levels everyone ought to be treating any water they get from a wild source.
Giardia is probably not as bad as a bunch of other nasties in the general environment in the UK such as cryptosporidium or leptospirosis (Weils disease) which will be loving conditions right now

THIS ^ ... with water levels as low as they are livestock and wildlife are being forced into smaller areas to drink and the low water levels aren't washing nasties away as they usually would.

[GregMay]

I've had it, it's not fun.

[mikehowarth]

Hey up Rich!

Yep much like Whitestone I picked up Giardia whilst I was away on my trip, but its just as easily contracted in the UK or Europe.

In hindsight it was rather stupid given that I was carrying a Steripen with me the whole time, and am now fairly fastidious about any water taken from streams or other sources.

I had my first onset in La Paz whilst staying at the casa de cicilistas, it laid me low for a couple of days but I simply put it down to food poisoning.

From La Paz to Cuenca in Ecuador (thats a bloody long way) I had various episodes along the way, given the frequency of the stomach issues I was having I self diagnosed and had various courses of low spectrum antibiotics when I interesected larger towns in northern Peru.

The worst was being stuck a tiny Andean village for a number of days, lacking any strengthen to move myself and my bike 80kms to the next big town.

Bizarrely its actually very easy to cure Giardia - I ended up taking a herbal remedy which cured things in no time - however I can never look at pineapple in the same way again

[Scud]

Where did you put the pineapple......?!

[mikehowarth]

Now that would be telling

[BigdummySteve]

Take it you peel the pineapple

[RIP]

Or at the very least, leaves last rather than first..