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Parasitic protozoa of the genus Cryptosporidium first came to prominence during the early 1980s, as a cause of prolonged diarrhea in patients with AIDS. Since then, public health authorities have reported infrequent outbreaks, affecting immunocompetent as well as immunocompromised persons; most of these outbreaks have been traced to contaminated food and drinking water.
The CDC recently reported cryptosporidiosis outbreaks during 2006 in Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Wyoming. In each of these states, the number of laboratory-confirmed cases during the 2006 outbreak far exceeded the median number of cases reported for any year from 2001 through 2005. Diarrhea was the most common symptom; about half the patients in whom sy…