Giardia Poll: Please vote!

[Buck Nelson]

Please take this poll so we all can get a better idea of how many of us have had Giardia.

Assuming I set this up right, if you haven't had Giardia you'll be voting for 1 option. If you have had Giardia you'll be voting for 3 options.

This is a spin off of this thread.

[Brian M]

I'll add to my answer (have not have giardia, do treat my water) that I did not start treating my water until about four years ago and still don't treat water when hiking in the high alpine most of the time. Having a wife made me take clean water more seriously, though.

[ak sagebrush]

I haven't had giardia since I stopped drinking out of martintrappers wife's water bottle.

[hodgeman]

When I'm up high I don't fret much about drinking unfiltered water... in the lowlands I won't however. I ran out sheep hunting a couple of years ago and just filled up my containers at a stream shooting out of the rocks at 6000'- no problems. My partner refused to drink for another day and got really sick from dehydration. He finally turned his nose up and drank some- he was sure he'd be sick but didn't contract anything.

I don't think I'd try that in some bog down in beaver and moose country though.

I personally think that Giardia, while very real, has been overhyped to the point people lose all rational thought about it...to hear some tell it you'd think the human race would have died out from it eons ago.

[akjeff]

I learned the lesson a long time ago (1985 or so), back in Boy Scouts. During an extended canoe trip, on Priest Lake in Idaho, half our troop came down with the fever. Luckily, the sickness set in at the end of the trip, 5-6 days in, it was bad. We were down to one sick person in the front of the canoe and one well person doing all the paddling. I was lucky and didn't get it. The effects can be severe, one of the scouts didn't recover for many months. More recently (1998 or so) I got food poisoning while in Korea. It was absolutely terrible. I was still on active duty in the Air Force and my duties had me flying with the plane that day. Everyone on the trip ate at the same street vendor. I was the only one to get sick. And man did I get sick. Felt like I was gonna die. It lasted about 24 hours. These two events where enough to get me to think about what goes into my body. I will not eat street meat ever again. And I have to be pretty thirsty to drink un-treated water. Now don't get me wrong I have drank plenty of water that is untreated, but I weight the cost each and every time. Our last moose hunt was scheduled to be 16 days long, that is way more than enough time for any disease/parasite to infest a person and ruin a trip. It doesn't just ruin it for the sick person either, everyone pays. We boil all our water in a pressure cooker. It uses less fuel and I think at 15 psi it is like 240 degrees F. Call me paranoid but I hate being sick.

[Buck Nelson]

...During an extended canoe trip, on Priest Lake in Idaho, half our troop came down with the fever...

How do you think they got it?

[broncoformudv]

I have never had it and do not treat my water but have filtered it on occasion, like Brian and Hodgeman I do not feel it is necessary in the alpine.

[FamilyMan]

I only had it once, while in mexico. knowing to never drink their water (even in restaurants) there, I (like an idjit) ordered a mixed drink; it came with ice cubes! Sicker'n heck I was for 2 solid days while tent camping on the beach (in La Boofadora, for those that know Baja).

Now while in mexico I'll drink no beverage except beer.

[strangerinastrangeland]

Dang....I drink it straight from the river, as do the wife and kids.....and the rest of these surrounding villages I know of...


Lately, I feel like an Amblance driver at the wheel with my Raybans on.... tunes crank'd max, Lights flashing, sirens blareing, pedal to the metal......., flying through all the lights........could be a Lifestyle or Darwinisim, I donno....:topjob:

~~LOL!!~~

[BTK]

I got something nasty from eating ice out of a mud puddle. That ice turned to 24hrs of slush from both ends. I'm not sure it was giardia, since that usually seems to have worse symptoms. I still occasionally drink untreated stuff, but do it at the end of a trip or from safe looking spots. A little bottle of iodine is sooo easy to carry.

[stid2677]

I got it while in Iraq, from the small amount of melted ice on the top of a soda can. Almost shut down the entire FOB, out of 43 people in my company only about 5 were uninfected. You could not find TP for any price. We were given strong doses of cipro to kill it. Anyone that has ever had it will surely do anything necessary to avoid getting it again.

[Jerod]

I've never had it, and could have checked #1 and #2. Some areas I will treat the water, but there are some areas where I am comfortable with the river water and have drank it untreated.

[Buck Nelson]

I got it while in Iraq, from the small amount of melted ice on the top of a soda can. Almost shut down the entire FOB, out of 43 people in my company only about 5 were uninfected. You could not find TP for any price. We were given strong doses of cipro to kill it. Anyone that has ever had it will surely do anything necessary to avoid getting it again.

How would you answer the question I often get when I tell people I got Giardiasis from drinking water: how do you know it was the water (or in this case, ice?)

[stid2677]

It was medically traced to the ice, and the 5 that did not get sick did not drink any of the sodas.

Steve

[Buck Nelson]

It was medically traced to the ice, and the 5 that did not get sick did not drink any of the sodas.

Steve

Thanks Steve. That seems pretty clear-cut!