By Kanina Holmes
WINNIPEG,
Manitoba (Reuters) - Hundreds more people could become ill because
of a parasite that contaminated the water supply of a small city
on the Canadian Prairies, local officials said on Monday as they
assessed a public health crisis that is already linked to three
deaths.
"We expect
to see positive results for some time," Dr. Gerhard Benade,
a medical health officer told a news conference in North Battleford,
Saskatchewan.
The city's
15,000 residents have been forced to boil their water for drinking,
cooking and cleaning since April 27, when local physicians and
municipal officials linked a rash of people suffering from nausea,
vomiting and diarrhea to the presence of cryptosporidium, a microscopic
parasite that lives in the intestines of humans and animals.
While health
authorities say most people who suffer the flu-like illness recover
within two weeks, the parasite can be deadly to people who suffer
from immune system deficiencies.
One of the
three people who died was infected with cryptosporidium. The two
other deaths are under investigation.
Top medical
experts said on Monday that the outbreak has likely afflicted
hundreds of other people from across the country who have recently
passed through North Battleford.
Many Canadians'
faith in the country's drinking water supply was shaken just over
a year ago when E. coli bacteria contaminated the drinking water
in Walkerton, a small town in rural Ontario. Seven people died
and more than 2,000 became seriously ill. A public inquiry into
events in Walkerton revealed widespread official bungling.
As the number
of confirmed cases of cryptosporidium infection in the west-central
Saskatchewan community continues to grow, standing now at 44 cases,
authorities were pressured to explain how the system broke down.
Attention
is already focused on a sedimentation chamber at one of the towns's
two water treatment plants, which stopped working properly for
about a month in March and April.
A preliminary
investigation of the local water treatment plant released on Monday
showed the facility's wells were not adequately covered and there
was evidence of mice at both that plant and the sewage treatment
center.
"At the
wastewater treatment plant it appears there may have been bypasses
of untreated sewage during periods of high inflows," Joe
Muldoon, an official with the provincial Environment Ministry
told a news conference.
"There
certainly are better plants across Canada and there certainly
are plants that probably aren't as good, said Muldoon.
As hundreds
of people continued to line up for thousands of liters of free
bottled water from a Canadian Tire hardgoods store in North Battleford,
politicians in Ottawa called on the federal government to draw
up a national set of enforceable water quality regulations.
The issue
of water safety provoked a heated debate in Parliament where Alexa
McDonough, leader of the minority left-leaning New Democrats,
insisted the government bring in tough binding laws on drinking
water safety.
"How
many Canadians is the government prepared to see die before it
finally acts?" she asked to jeers and catcalls.
"The
reality is that we have developed with our provincial partners
the very kind of standards (she) is talking about," responded
Health Minister Allan Rock.
Rock was later
pressed by legislators who pointed out that Canada merely has
guidelines rather than federal rules governing drinking water.
The House
of Commons is due to vote on Tuesday on a motion from the minority
Conservative Party calling on the federal government to introduce
binding legislation on national drinking water standards.
As headlines
blared North Battleford's water crisis across the country, shares
in Canada's two largest water treatment companies, Zenon Environment
and Trojan Technologies Inc., both of which have products that
kill cryptosporidium, soared to 52-week highs on the Toronto Stock
Exchange on Monday. Trojan gained 13.4 percent and Zenon rose
17.3 percent.
Trojan spokeswoman
Diana Cunningham said the company had become active in North Battleford
since the contamination and was offering information and technical
advice.
The company's
technology uses very low doses of ultraviolet light to kill microorganisms
such as cryptosporidium, which does not react to chlorine.
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