[pct-l] Hand Washing Hype

[goforth@xxxxxxx (Joanne Lennox)]

I have had Giardia 5 times. Twice on my thruhike in 99.  Each time I get
it, it gets worse. 3 times the bug was found through or confirmed through
Laboratory tests (this is very unusual, and treatment should not hinge on
laboratory findings, or you may just spend days on  the toilet trying to
turn inside out).

I am here to tell you that handwashing is great, and may prevent spread of
the bug and contamination, but it does nothing to garanteed your health
should the water you drink or the food you eat be really contaminated and
you sensitive to this infection.

Twice both I and my husband got G from a municipal water source: Boulder,
Utah, which at that time was getting its water directly from a beaver pond
(G is called Beaver Fever); this water was labeled with a sign at the only
grocery/gas station as "potable water" and we filled up there two years in
a row. The third year, we happen to meet the town Nurse/ambulance personel,
when we stopped to help in a serious accident with a head injury(a mobil
home lost its brakes coming down out of the Aquarius Plateau).  When she
offered a shower later, we jumped at the opportunity and in passing she
mentioned that her children were probably too skinney because of endemic G.
from the water source). "Oh. tell me about it"! (And that year I had
insisted on carrying water all the way from home)

With the Sanitation in Nepal in 1981, it was almost impossible to avoid G.
if you ate at the tea houses while trekking.  The month that I spent in a
monastery ,  the food was frequently handled and prepared by children with
dirty hands.  The only water for washing was 10 minutes away and out of
bounds generally (no time, and a conflict had developed  - Hindu
cleanliness practices forbade the water or area being contaminated  by non
hindu). All the water was treated, and this is one place where hand washing
might have made a differnece, but i still think that there are so many
potential sources of gross contamination, that even if one was religious
about hand washing, you still eat food handled by others.

There has also been some discussion that what with clorinated water
nowadays we do not develop any immunity.  I have drunk from two wells  at
home for the last 29 years(tested, and untreated), and spent 2 years in the
peace corp where the water was not as pristine as  most water on the PCT.
As a teenager, I also drank well water, and creek and lake water. For the
seven years that I was sculling and rowing every day, I sampled various
lakes and streams from the East to West Coast (I abstained on the Charles
in Boston and the Sckyukill in Philadelphia).   I did not treat much of the
water when I was climbing either in the cascades or the Sierras for 35
years. You would think that I would have developed immunity by now.

I think that a hiker needs to keep his head up, look at the source of his
water, and use various means to avoid getting this infection. There is some
water I would not drink , other I use Iodine, I also filter, and try to
find treated water.  Sometimes, I look at a creek and check out its
headwaters on the map, and drink it.  But there are a lot of potential
animal carriers out there in the mountains, even where you'll not find a
biped.  I look at marmots and see how close to beavers they are.

I don't think that it helps to generalize, especially from the treatment
methods of  those who have never had it.  Some Buddhist say that there are
Gods that can eat sewage as if it were nectar.  Maybe I'll get there some
day.

Joanne