Please register or login . Your healthy campmate could be a carrier. Crypto is a microscopic, waterborne parasite that the federal Centers for Disease Control has tagged a major health risk to those who spend time in the woods. The hearty critter sets up housekeeping in the intestines of everything from your unhygienic tentmate to a cow upstream. It travels via feces and, thanks to its tough shell, can survive for long periods without a host, even in very cold water.
Symptoms can last from a few days to a few weeks.
It's common for crypto victims to get better, then worsen, then finally get better for good. Cryptosporidiosis usually is a relatively mild illness in otherwise healthy people. But unlike giardiasis, another waterborne parasitic infection that's often treated with antibiotics, there is no medication proven to help you overcome cryptosporidiosis. Your body eventually just has to rid itself of the parasite. Conquering Crypto Avoid illness by exercising an ounce of prevention.