GIARDIA LAMBLIA: "TRAVELERS DIARRHEA"
I was talking to a friend in Foster City, CA, who just spent a weekend in California's High Sierras and now claims to have diarrhea; feels bloated; has, on and off, chills; and has, since he's been back, vomited more than three time in the last twenty-four hours.
He said that the beauty of his trip was the swimming in a river, a lake, and drinking the nice fresh, mountain water. He caught his dinner( fresh trout)several times, and the other times he ate stakes and several salads that he brought from home. All in all, it was a nice trip--but now he says he doesn't feel well.
After he told me about the good time he had and his symptoms, I asked, "Did he go to the doctor for a check up?" "No", he said, " But I made an appointment this afternoon." I told him when he does see his doctor to make sure the doctor checks for 'Giardia Lamblia".
Giardia Lamblia is known as "Travelers Diarrhea" and can be found in so called fresh, mountain drinking water. When you look at the fresh drinking water it looks clear, but the cysts, a sack like structure, which is the infectious stage of the parasite, can be transmitted in water or food. This is the reason why you are told to treat, so called, fresh mountain water before you drink it.
If you need to drink water while backpacking, carry and use water disinfectant pills, or suffer the consequence: "Travelers Diarrhea".
Oh, my friend did have Travelers Diarrhea. When I last talked to him, he said, "Thank you for telling me to tell the doctor to check for Giardia Lamblia. The doctor did check for it and found it."
