Down-Under University Researchers Find One Person Could Be Responsible For Sydney's Big Crypto Outbreak
Sydney, Australia is undergoing an outbreak of Cryptosporidium that in a little more than a month has made 628 people sick. All of last year, the water rich city saw only 482 cases of Crypto.
And now the Star newspaper is reporting that the Sydney's entire cryptosporidium outbreak may be linked to a single infected person.
The latest genetic testing means it is unlikely that an infected animal or environmental conditions like the weather are to blame.
According to the Star, Macquarie University researchers say their testing is experimental, and unlikely to identify the origin of the current outbreak, but they hope their work will lead to the development of a world-leading, inexpensive automated test to quickly identify parasite strains involved in future outbreaks, allowing sources to be rapidly traced and infections contained.
Michelle Power, of Macquarie's biological sciences department, told the Star cryptosporidium outbreaks were difficult to trace using existing technology.
For more on what they are finding out down-under, the rest of the Star story can be found here.
