Giardia. A real concern or not?

[Transient Being]

How many of you guys treat your water? The reason I ask is because I did a 700 mile section last year, from Hot Springs to Front Royal and never treated any water. Never got sick. I've also done several short hikes without water treatment of any sort. Still would like to hear what others are doing and why.

[colorado_rob]

Just an odds/crap shoot thing, really, and I doubt anyone really knows the odds because too many variables. I do know I did get Giardia (diagnosed as such, at least) in Belize. Not a huge deal really, Cipro knocked it out. I did that same 700 AT miles this spring and my basic rule was: if it's a spring coming out of the ground, no need to filter/treat (though I did sometimes anyway). If it's a stream, I always treat.

[ChinMusic]

I would say that the number of thrus I personally knew, that had giardia diagnosed by a professional, was between 5 and 10 during my thru this season. IMO it is a real concern. Some folks are better than others are selecting water sources that are safe. Some folks have cast-iron stomachs that seem immune to disease. Me? I treat everything, just in case, even the stuff I think is 99.999999% safe.

[colorado_rob]

woops... correction, MY 700 mile stretch was from Springer to Catawba (then to Front Royal later).

[FarmerChef]

I filter all my water unless it's coming out of a pipe and high on a ridge. There's no way I'd drink pond water untreated or other slow moving or stagnant water. Giardia's not the only thing I'm worried about when it comes to the latter. In reality, your chances, from what I've read, of getting Giardia are low along the trail if you're getting your water from many of the spring-source water sources along the AT. But the reason I treat is e-coli contamination is not that difficult and more prevalent, I'm hiking with children, and I don't want any nasty bugs in my water in either case. For me, it's better safe than sorry.

[oleary92]

I do not know how much of a threat it is on the AT...I got it traveling in Africa, BUT, I had it for 5 months and it was absolutly awful. Most people I hear, can shake it within a matter of weeks, most of the time, but for a lot of people, you need to be on flagyl. My brother picked it up in Colorado and lost 18 lbs. in 3 days. I bloated up like a balloon and farted up a storm, didn't have solid stools for 5 months etc. You really need to evaluate whether it is worth the risk, it can be awful. Other people don't have a big issue with it. Before I got it, I had been extremely healthy, didn't often filter the water when hiking. Since the AT is such a frequented area and not high altitude where you're getting your water from source lakes it seems like an unnecessary risk. But, it's up to you of course. I opted not to filter for years and then was sick for a while as a result. Aquatabs are light and easy to use if you don't want to carry a filter or don't like the taste of iodine.

[HooKooDooKu]

Given that the Sawyer Mini is now available, is there really an excuse to risk NOT filtering your water?

[kayak karl]

i was told by Doc that there are many different parasites and that he would guess (he is a hiker) that most do not get sick from water source. said most cases are poor hygiene practices, but who wants to admit that. blame it on the water

[SCRUB HIKER]

Just an odds/crap shoot thing, really, and I doubt anyone really knows the odds because too many variables.

Agree 100%. I treated water 3 times in the first 400 miles on the PCT this year, then zero after that. I was diagnosed with giardia in Oregon, but for me (can't speak for others on this one), the symptoms were so mild that for almost a week I wasn't even sure I was sick. Flagyl eliminated all my symptoms within 24 hours of starting the course. It took me 1800 miles of virtually no treatment to get sick, then I had 700 more miles of healthy hiking once the antibiotics had run their course.

Everyone's case is different, and from what I have seen or heard, there appears to be almost no correlation between treating/not treating and contracting/not contracting giardia. Worry about it as much as you want to worry about it ... I personally don't think it's a big deal.

[ChinMusic]

Agree 100%. I treated water 3 times in the first 400 miles on the PCT this year, then zero after that. I was diagnosed with giardia in Oregon, but for me (can't speak for others on this one), the symptoms were so mild that for almost a week I wasn't even sure I was sick. Flagyl eliminated all my symptoms within 24 hours of starting the course. It took me 1800 miles of virtually no treatment to get sick, then I had 700 more miles of healthy hiking once the antibiotics had run their course.

Everyone's case is different, and from what I have seen or heard, there appears to be almost no correlation between treating/not treating and contracting/not contracting giardia. Worry about it as much as you want to worry about it ... I personally don't think it's a big deal.

I don't think anyone is equating giardia with the Black Death. That said, given the choice, I would rather not be sick.

[peakbagger]

My friend got in in the 100 mile wilderness. He had hunted and fished for years all over and never treated water. Three days later he felt lousy and five day later he was in the hospital with an IV in his arm as he was so badly dehydrated. At least giardia has a couple of day incubation, cryptosporium is less than 24 hours.

[Lone Wolf]

How many of you guys treat your water? The reason I ask is because I did a 700 mile section last year, from Hot Springs to Front Royal and never treated any water. Never got sick. I've also done several short hikes without water treatment of any sort. Still would like to hear what others are doing and why.

i've walked 16,000 miles on the AT including 5 thru-hikes. i've never filtered or treated water. to me it's not a concern

[Praha4]

noravirus is probably a bigger threat than giardia during thru hiker season

[lush242000]

Nasty hikers is more of concern. Nasty hikers with mutts is a bigger concern. Flame on.


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[BobL]

My son is thru hiking this year and picked up Giardia just short of Delaware Water Gap. He got off the trail for personal business and took the time to get tested. Came back positive for G before the symptoms set in. Took his antibiotics and was fine. He got lucky.

[garlic08]

The evidence suggests that Giardia is a real concern. Plenty of hikers I respect have gotten it and are very careful about it. That said, I've never gotten it and I seldom treat drinking water, but am very careful about sources, as well as personal hygiene and food safety.

Mechanical devices eventually fail, and I don't like ingesting treatment chemicals for a long term. These are not a concern on shorter hikes.

I often think about the seat belt analogy. I've never been in a car accident, but I use the seat belts. The analogy isn't the greatest because the level of risk is different, as others point out.

[Don H]

I don't know how you can determine if a source is safe or not. Some guy takes a dump and doesn't wash his hands and 15 minutes latter he's dipping water out of a spring. You come buy thinking it's safe, is it?

I believe most Giardia contracted by hikers is from sharing food and drink.

I've read that the most common place for Giardia is a day care facility, followed by a public pool.

I treat anything that doesn't come from a public water system. Even the hand pumps you find along the AT get treated. Many are posted with signs that indicate you should treat.

Some people can tolerate raw water better than others.

This question comes up time and time again and you see the same people here saying they don't treat. Do what you want, I'll treat and I've never been sick on the trail.

[Pedaling Fool]

It's true, you don't know. Personally, I see this (drinking untreated water) as a way to exercise my immune system and a little sickness is worth it to me. I do stay away from streams in cow pastures, but I do drink untreated water out of streams in the mountains, but I realize there is a risk, but it's just not on my top 10 list of worries.

Curiosity: I've heard a lot of people say they only drink untreated water from a piped spring. However, I'm curious. Does that mean you do NOT drink untreated water from an UNPIPED spring? I don't see a difference between a piped and unpiped spring.

[Colter]

People frequently debate this topic but as usual there are people coming forward saying "it happened to me." I've been diagnosed three times. I've found it to be a big deal.

The largest retrospective study ever done on giardiasis concluded this: “drinking untreated mountain water is an important cause of endemic infection” In that study hundreds of victims were sick an average of 3.8 weeks and lost an average of about 12 pounds. Is that a big deal or not?

The following three peer-reviews scientific papers specifically studied A.T. hikers:

"Health care needs of Appalachian Trail Hikers" ...Methods to purify water need to be used regularly...

"Medical Risks of Wilderness Hiking" In a prospective surveillance study, 334 persons who hiked the Appalachian Trail for at least 7 days (mean [+/- SD] length of hike, 140 +/- 60 days) in 1997 were interviewed. ...Diarrhea is the most common illness limiting long-distance hikers. Hikers should purify water routinely, avoiding using untreated surface water...

"Influence of Hygiene on Gastrointestinal Illness among Wilderness Backpackers" Lack of hygiene, specifically handwashing and cleaning of cookware, should be recognized as a significant contributor to wilderness gastrointestinal illness. Hikers should routinely disinfect water and avoid untreated surface water.

The papers, according to my reading of the numbers, show that water treatment is MORE important than hygiene, but that BOTH are important. Note that the papers don't say "drink smart" they say to treat water ROUTINELY. You can't tell if surface water is safe by looking at it. The EPA says [Giardia] cysts have been found all months of the year in surface waters from the Arctic to the tropics in even the most pristine of surface waters.

I've studied this topic extensively and have written more, here.

[lush242000]

Aqua Mira FTW!


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