[pct-l] Waterborne giardia: a new look at the evidence

Tortoise Tortoise73 at charter.net
Sun Sep 9 20:31:24 CDT 2012


I just went to Buck's blog and followed the link to the new study.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10737847 and read the abstract which is:
> Risk of giardiasis from consumption of wilderness water in North America: 
> a systematic review of epidemiologic data.
> Welch TP.
> Source
> Department of Tropical Medicine, Tulane University School of Public 
> Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. 
> twelch2 at mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu
>
> Abstract
> OBJECTIVES:
> A meta-analytic study was conducted to test the hypothesis that 
> consumption of water from North American backcountry sources poses a 
> statistically significant risk for acquisition of giardiasis.
> METHODS:
> The biomedical literature was surveyed by accessing Medline, and 
> identified studies were supplemented with references in current reviews, 
> published dissertations, and prior communications with state health 
> departments. Studies were classified by methodologic design and subjected 
> to predetermined inclusion criteria. Odds ratios with 95% confidence 
> intervals, chi-squares, and P-values for epidemiologic surveys were 
> either computed from raw data or abstracted directly from the included 
> studies.
> RESULTS:
> Of 104 articles identified in the initial screening, nine met the 
> inclusion criteria. Neither of two case reports met the criteria of the 
> Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for waterborne disease 
> outbreak. Two prospective studies were identified, but neither showed a 
> significant association. Of four case-control studies providing data, 
> three reported an odds ratio of greater than one.
> CONCLUSIONS:
> *Published reports of confirmed giardiasis among outdoor recreationalists 
> clearly demonstrate a high incidence among this population. However, the 
> evidence for an association between drinking backcountry water and 
> acquiring giardiasis is minimal. *[emphasis added by me] Education 
> efforts aimed at outdoor recreationalists should place more emphasis on 
> handwashing than on water purification. Further studies should attempt to 
> separate the specific risk factor of drinking water from backcountry 
> sources from other behaviors among this group that may contribute to the 
> risk.
> PMID: 10737847 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
This was a review of biomedical literature. The abstract says that back 
country water is not the problem.

Tortoise

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable
President John F Kennedy,  1962

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On 2012.09.08 10:11, Bruce 'Buck' Nelson wrote:
> Just made a new blog post. I hope those interested will check it out.
>
> Comments about my intellect, ancestry, physical appearance, or honesty
> should be directed to my blog.  I welcome other comments at my blog or
> here.
>
> Don't know if the clickable link will work or not so I've included it twice:
>
> http://bucktrack.blogspot.com/2012/09/backpacker-giardia-debunking-skeptical_8.html
>
> <a href="http://bucktrack.blogspot.com/2012/09/backpacker-giardia-debunking-skeptical_8.html">Backpacker
> Giardia: Debunking a Skeptical Paper</a>
>
> Happy PCTing
>
> Colter
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