Have you ever gotten sick after filtering water?

[Max Dilthey]

Hey all,

Myself, my buddy Jim, and our girlfriends Brittany and Kelley had an awesome trip on Camel's Hump this past weekend. We used an MSR Miniworks and a Sawyer Squeeze to filter our water from the local untested water sources up there. Unfortunately, Brittany found herself very sick about one day after we returned. Very bad stomach pain and a fever of 102.

She's been to the doctor and they are testing for bacterial infection.

I am worried about a few possibilities:

1. The MSR Miniworks didn't filter everything sinister, since it has a higher pore size than the Sawyer Squeeze.

2. The little white foam washer fell out of my Sawyer Squeeze, but I thought I got a good enough seal to keep filtering without it, so I ignored it. Should I replace my filter? (seems unlikely this was the issue, I noticed no leakage).

3. There's an unrelated cause and we filtered everything fine.

4. The mountain saw a lot of traffic, over 700 people passed over the summit last Saturday. People create waste. I'm worried we weren't strict enough with our water filtering- could a drop from the outside of a wet Sawyer bag make someone sick? What about touching stream-wetted hands to our faces?

5. Brittany is not a regular camper and regularly uses hand sanitizer/lysol, so perhaps her immune system might not be as good as the rest of ours, since all of us are notoriously dirty outdoorsy people who eat food we dropped on the ground sometimes.

How are you doing with your filters?

[Jake D]

i'd say more likely from contact with something else or from outside of the filter. i doubt it was the washer since anything going through will get filtered. Other places along the way are dirty… bathrooms, shelters, sign posts. hand washing is important.

[Lori P]

The timing isn't quite right unless the trip was more than 8 days long. Giardia takes 9-11 days to become symptomatic.

I suspect it may be a lesser bug coming about due to other sources. Or the flu. Lots of flu going around right now. I've had a low grade fever myself for the past few days.

[Mobile Calculator]

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[jimmy b]

Cant remember ever getting sick after a trip but I am interested in what will follow in this thread.

I too am curious about how much bad water or cross contamination it would take to get you sick. I splash water on my face frequently and take a dip when I can. Then I carefully filter my drinking water. Kinda makes you wonder how much A little dirty water matters. I guess the source is most important.

Jimmyb

[Mobile Calculator]

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[Jerry Adams]

food? transfer of fecal matter on hands or whatever?

I get sick occasionally, like everyone. Sometimes it's during or just after a trip where I drink water.

If you've followed all the threads that Buck and Roger and … have done, there's lots of conflicting data about all this. Not possible to answer definitively.

Some people apparently get sick from drinking water. It's so easy and lightweight to use Sawyer or Steripen that you may as well do it. And wash good after pooping.

[Billy Ray]

Another possibility would be food eaten on the way to or way back from the trip.
Or one of the filters was previously left out in to freeze at night? But then I would expect more than one person to be sick.
You'll probably never know for sure.

[Roger Caffin]

> We used an MSR Miniworks and a Sawyer Squeeze to filter our water from the local
> untested water sources up there. Unfortunately, Brittany found herself very sick
> about one day after we returned. Very bad stomach pain and a fever of 102.

Neither of these will block viruses (assuming a regular Sawyer filter, not the 0.02 micron one). You can get VERY sick from a virus – been there and had that. Like out for 24 hours. With all those people around, many of whom would be complete novices, faecal contamination is a real threat.

When we need to treat the water we use a Steripen Opti, which does handle all three threats.

Cheers

[hwc 1954]

The MSR Miniworks is supposed to take care of everything except viruses. If you are in an area where human viruses might be a threat, the AquaTabs chlorine tabs will add virus protection.

[Justin Baker]

Do viruses even exist in North American water sources? If so, in what kinds of places?

[Bob Gross]

"Do viruses even exist in North American water sources?"

Yes, although this is not very common. It might be downstream of some civilization.

Bacteria and parasites are a little more common.

–B.G.–

[Roger Caffin]

> Do viruses even exist in North American water sources? If so, in what kinds of places?

Oh yes, downstream of any small town. They come out of older sewerage treatment plants.
Also around water sources where 700 people go past.

Cheers

[Andrew U]

I've seen plenty of human poo less than 30 feet from the edge of a lake before, and in fairly untraveled areas where the only people who really go there are people who should know better.

If I'm filtering from spring water or snow melt high in the mountains, I just use my Sawyer. But I'm switching back to Aqua Mira for anything at lower elevations, not too keen on ingesting a poo virus. But FWIW, I've never to my knowledge gotten sick from contaminated water.

It's too bad, we go into the mountains to get away from 'civilization' and we still have to protect ourselves against it.

[hwc 1954]

It seems the general recommendation is that human virus contamination of water is not usually a problem in back country settings in the US. Bacteria and parasites (from animal contamination) is the big risk. Virus protection is most important for third-world travel.

http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/water-risks.html

http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/water-treatment-international.html

[Andrew U]

The REI 'expert' advice is far too generalized.

Yes, there are very few naturally occurring viruses dangerous to humans in North American backcountry. High in the mountains it is almost never a problem. The problem is with water sources contaminated by human traffic.

The reason virus protection is most important for third world travel is lack of sanitation, i.e. open sewage. Which is exactly what happens at popular backcountry campsites. People don't respect what their feces and trash can do to the ecosystem, especially when it comes to funking up water sources.

As always, people just need to use common sense and judge their water sources accordingly. Lake country that is popular with the car camping and day hiking crowd = treat water for everything. Snow melt off of a 14er, probably fine to drink straight up.

[Barry P]

Some of my random thoughts:
1. You will never know if your miniworks or Squeeze is working unless you send it in to a university for analysis. How do you know if it has never froze or never dropped?
2. If your filtered water got contaminated, as younoted maybe your immune system is pretty good.
3. In the Rockies here, some water comes straight from watermelon snow. 5 weeks ago I backpacked with 15 boys in the Tetons. We all used steripens except one kid (used nothing). He got a “…bad stomach pain and a fever … ” within a day. After a couple of diarrhea bouts he was back to normal. When I got home I looked up watermelon snow and it does give you cramps and it is a laxative. I’m thanking steripen for doing its job.
4. To Lori’s point, in 2 weeks you should also know if Giardia has set in.
5. So far I have only seen the First Need Filter have nice robust self-check test (the blue dye test). Along that vein, you also know the steripen is working if the blue light is seen.

-Barry
-The mountains were made for Tevs

[Rick McDaniel]

Hi all
Have been using the Sawyer mini filter.No chem treatment with it.I believe i am sick with Giardia. Have not been to doctor for test,but i am pretty darn sure.Has anyone else had this problem?
I know i am throwing my filter out & going back to chemical treatment. Symptoms are abdominal pain with fatigue then gas,bloating,flatulence & then diarrhea (sorry).I could have cross contaminated or some how messed up but at least i know i never got sick using chem treatment. Any thoughts ?

[Nick Gatel]

I have never used a filter, chemicals work for me. And I manage my water by carrying a little extra at times so the required purification time is completed. I have pulled nasty looking water from troughs and just boiled what I needed immediately and treated the rest. I would rather carry an extra liter of water than get sick or rely on an electronic gadget that might break or have a dead battery, or a clogged or defective filter when I need to purify water. When I hike I don't worry about purifying water, my system works and I have never gotten sick. On most trips my problem is actually finding water.

[Ken Thompson]

How good are you about washing your hands, sharing food? Honestly.

[Nick Gatel]

I don't share food. Another good reason to hike alone.

:)

[Rick McDaniel]

Hi. Honestly,about as good as anyone else & probably better.I am out in the woods every other day drinking from streams(with the filter).I already admitted that i could have messed up or cross contaminated,but don't think so.Before the mini Sawyer i was using the larger Sawyer filter.No problems with it & i drank from some pretty nasty water sources.I just posted this to see if anyone else has had a problem with the mini.
Escuse me,have to run :( By the way,thank you for the feedback.

[Rescue Randy]

Filtered backcountry water in the US is pretty safe. I second the notion that it may have been something else, especially if the filter element was in good condition.

We just got back from Peru where we filtered tap water with a Sawyer mini and the faucet adapter. Because there is some Hepatitis (virus) risk in South America we added about 1/4 dose of Aquamira and doubled the treatment time. Water tasted great and we bought way less bottled water! -sorry, a little off topic but I wanted to give a thumbs up to the Mini and to the Faucet Adapter for it for travelers.

[Mark V.]

It would be far more productive if the two people involved in this discussion (Max’s friend, and Rick) had an accurate diagnosis from a doctor (instead of a self-diagnosis as in Rick’s case) before any blame can be assessed to a water filter.
There are multitudes of maladies that can cause similar symptoms that, without a diagnosis of a waterborne ailment, blaming the water filters (as Rick has done when he wrote “I just posted this to see if anyone else has had a problem with the mini”) is just a little irresponsible.

[Rick McDaniel]

Hi. Regarding Mark's post.You are right. Maybe i was being irresponsible & i will end this by saying sorry. Everyone have a nice weekend. Happy Trails.
Rick

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