The final word

on "beaver fever’

by Tod Strachan

Beaver fever. A few people in
our area are truly suffering from
this miserable little "bug" and
deserve a good measure of sym-
pathy. But beaver fever has
received so much attention in
recent months that some people
fear the disease more than they
really should, Others, of course,
are just plain sick of hearing the
words. .

If you have symptoms like ab-
dominal cramping and swelling,
watery or foul-smelling diarrhoea,
nausea, flatulence (gas) and have
lost a few pounds, there’s a pos-
sibility you have beaver fever.
Check with your family doctor.
Beaver fever (giardiasis or giardia
duodenalis) is easily diagnosed
with a stool sample and can be
treated.

If you don’t have any of the

symptoms, but feel the "bug" is
waiting for you just around the

corner, relax. There is no beaver
fever epidemic and there is no
evidence at all that the Terrace
municipal water system is con-
taminated. There is, in fact, evi-
dence to the contrary.

So these are the facts: the num-
ber of cases of beaver fever in our
area is small, the disease can easily
be diagnosed and treated but better
still it can be prevented, and our
water is safe.

But before we talk about our
water supply and the prevention of
beaver fever, iet’s find out where
the microscopic little beast respqn-
sible for beaver fever comes from
in the first place. oo,

Nature, Its peaceful beauty is an
elixir to urban man. Towering
mountains, animals and birds,
crystal clear streams... This is the
kind of stuff clean living and good
health are made from. "Let’s get
back to nature," is the cry. of
many.

Unfortunately, though, it’s all a

myth. Nature isn’t necessarily
good for our health.

All that wildlife —- deer, elk,
sheep, goats, the much-maligned
beaver and a few other miscel-
laneous species — have been
"messing up" our idyllic outdoors
scene, probably since time began.
They defecate in or near those
crystal clear mountain streams and
any that are infected with

giardiasis leave behind encap-

sulated giardia cysts (eggs), some
of which eventually make it into
municipal water systems.

For this reason, any surface body
of water such as a stream, creek,
river or lake is likely to contain at
least a few giardia cysts, and some
of these cysts will eventually find
their way into city reservoirs and
make a few people ill. Most muni-
cipalities chlorinate their domestic
water supply, but chlorine doesn’t
really bother giardia. So the poten-
tial for contracting beaver fever is
very reat... if no other preventative
measures are taken.

This is what happens. The stool
of an infected mammal can contain
hundreds of thousands of giardia
cysts and beaver fever might be
contracted by ingesting as few as
one of them. Once ingested, the
giardia cyst begins its second stage

of life by attaching itself to the
upper portion of the intestinal wall
(the duodenum) where it begins to
grow and multiply.

Three weeks later the symptoms
of beaver fever begin to appear.
Depending on the individual, these
symptoms may be mild, severe or
practically non-existent. But even
if there are no apparent symptoms
the individual is still a carrier of
the disease, and this raises an
important point.

We can’t blame wildlife alone for
the spread of beaver fever. Man is
a carrier too, and the fact that a
growing number of humans are
heading into the bush for work or
play isn’t helping the situation at
all. Mans’ basic habits, in many
cases, aren’t any better than wild
animals and a person who is

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ae

infected is a carrier of the giardia
cyst. Adding to the problem is the
fact that man doesn’t normally
head into the bush alone. Many
take along their dogs, cats and
kids: and dogs, cats and kids are
potential carriers of the cyst as
well.

This invasion of nature by
humans is a complicating factor
when trying to identify the true
source of beaver fever. For
example, if a fisherman, hiker,
hunter or logger dares to take a
drink of water from a mountain
stream and later contracts beaver
fever, there is no way of knowing
if the disease came from the
stream or the tap water in his
home.

Tap water is likely to be blamed,
though, and this causes an’
increased awareness of the disease.
An increased awareness causes
more people, with a variety of
symptoms, to visit their doctor. A
very small number of these people
will find they don’t have the flu as
they had believed; they will be told
they have beaver fever. And this,
of course, encourages even more
people to visit their doctor.

And so it goes. The number of
incidents of beaver fever is on the
rise, but this fact alone might be
misleading. Health officials have
no way of knowing just how many
people head off into the bush each
year. They know the number is
growing, right along with the num-
ber of reported cases of beaver
fever, but it’s difficult to pin-point
the source and no one really knows
how many cases of the disease
went undiagnosed before this
recent awareness.

With these facts alone, then, it
would appear as though local pro-
fessionals like Skeena Health Unit
chief medical officer Dr. David
Bowering and chief environmental
health officer Ron Craig are left
with a stubborn disease and a
number of unknowns. How can
they say with any certainty that
any of the municipal water systems
in this area are safe?

In the Skeena Health Unit region,
an area bounded by Houston and
the Queen Charlotte Islands and
Klemtu and the B.C./Yukon bor-
der, there has been a dramatic
increase in the number of reported
cases of beaver fever this year:
from 72 in 1988 and 74 in 1989 to
84 so far this year, with a month
and a half still to go. By the end
of the year, Bowering expects the
increase over last year’s figures

— Continued on page A14

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