Water is an essential part of everyone's life is order to live. It is used for many parts of our daily lives and will become detrimental if it becomes contaminated. A global water related disease infected by a parasite is known as Giardia. Giardia is a parasite that will cause a diarrheal illness. This parasite is microscopic and can be found in food, water and soil that is contaminated by feces from humans and animals. Dangerously this parasite can survive outside of the body for a vast majority of time due to its outer shell. Water is the most frequent method to become infected by either drinking water or recreational use and is tolerant to chlorine.
The life cycle of Giardia has two stages: infective and diagnostic. As described below the first part of the cycle is infected by the contamination of cysts. The second part is where excystation releases trophozoites in the small intestine. Next trophozoites multiply by binary fusion. Then the parasites go towards the colon and last they are passed in the stool where they are infectious.
Treatment is effective using drugs. Several different drugs can be used: metronidazole, tinidazole, and nitazoxanide.
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/giardia/index.html
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