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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffCryptosporidium infection (cryptosporidiosis) is a gastrointestinal disease whose primary symptom is diarrhea. The illness begins when the tiny cryptosporidium parasite enters your body and travels to your small intestine. Cryptosporidium then begins its life cycle inside your body — burrowing into the walls of your intestines and then later being shed in your feces.
In most healthy people, a cryptosporidium infection produces a bout of watery diarrhea and the infection usually goes away within a week or two. If you have a compromised immune system, a cryptosporidium infection can become life-threatening without proper treatment.
You can help prevent cryptosporidium with good hygiene and by avoiding drinking water that hasn't been boiled or filtered.
- Cryptosporidiosis: Disease. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/print.do?url=http%3A//www.cdc.gov/crypto/disease.html. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Leder K. Cryptosporidiosis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 19, 2009.
- Cryptosporidiosis: Infection - General public. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/crypto/factsheets/infect.html. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Cryptosporidiosis: Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/crypto/prevention.html. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Bad Bug Book - Cryptosporidium parvum. U.S Food and Drug Administration. http://www.foodsafety.gov/~mow/chap24.html. Accessed Jan. 22, 2009.
- Cryptosporidiosis: Epidemiology & risk factors. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/print.do?url=http%3A//www.cdc.gov/crypto/epi.html. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Cryptosporidiosis: Control. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/crypto/control.html. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
