ONE YEAR after Galway's drinking water crisis a number of people still have "continuing complications" linked to the cryptosporidium parasite, according to health officials.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) West said "less than 10" cases had developed complications, including children who were seriously ill when they contracted the infection through contaminated water.
Diarmuid O'Donovan, its director of public health, said Galway city and county was "very lucky" to have escaped fatalities, before or during the alert period, given the experience of such outbreaks in similar populations elsewhere. However, he said it was "deeply worrying" that some 36 per cent of the State's public water supplies were "potentially risking public health", according to a recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report.
Severe diarrhoea, gallbladder disease and pancreatitis are among conditions which immuno-compromised people, such as those with Aids, can develop as a result of contracting cryptosporidiosis, a debilitating gastro- intestinal illness.
There is no cure among normally healthy individuals, who can be very sick for a number of weeks.
The largest documented outbreak of the cryptosporidiosis illness occurred in Milwaukee in the United States, in 1993, where more than 400,000 people became ill and more than 100 people died - mainly elderly people and immuno-compromised patients.
HSE West said that for patient confidentiality reasons, it could not be more specific in relation to those left with complications, but it said it was "not aware" of any deaths as a result of last year's health alert, publicised on March 15th in Galway.
Earlier this month, after the hospitalisation of three children, the public water supply in Ennis, Co Clare, was once again declared "high risk" for cryptosporidium. Ennis experienced its first such contamination in mid-2005.
The EPA's drinking water report published in January said that 339 out of a total of 994 public water supplies had been put on an "amber alert" - as in posing potential risk to humans - but would not identify these, pending detailed assessment reports from local authorities.
It said that E.coli linked to sewage contamination was identified in 246 of the State's 688 private group water schemes in the past two years.
E.coli was also detected in water supplying parts of Galway city last year only a month after the lifting of the five-month-long "boil water" alert. The local authority emphasised that this relatively short-lived difficulty was not linked to the cryptosporidium "problem" which forced more than 90,00 people to boil and buy drinking water throughout the spring and busy summer season.
Although the Government has committed funds to upgrading water treatment infrastructure, there has been no increase in State funding for public health as a result of Galway's outbreak.