01-14-2018, 09:53 AM
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2017/0...ch-wanted/
FYI Dr. Jarvi is Hawaii's leading expert on Rat Lung.
Dr. JARVI: Education is no doubt very, very, important. But this problem is bigger than that… “Safe eating is healthy eating, and wash your veggies”. Very, very good advice. But washing your veggies with water does not make them safe, it makes them safer. These larvae, these rat lungworm organisms, live in water. We’ve had them in our lab, in the infectious stage, out to three weeks growing just in water. We now have a culture that when you give them a little food we’re out to four months we can keep these guys alive. So, just washing your vegetables in water – especially in an area where you have such high, widespread, unregulated catchment use, where a lot of people do not have fresh potable water to wash their vegetables in. So that’s a very big problem.
COUNCILWOMAN O’HARA: To me that’s not sufficient… where we’re passing out information that is not well researched, documented, firmly identifies ways to avoid transmission of this disease [referring to the Department of Health's Public Service announcements as being unverified information]. We’re not doing enough.
It suggests that people use as small as a 5 micron filter. Most of the filters that are commonly used are 10 or 20 microns. So it was suggested that the use of a 5 micron may protect you from a rat lungworm disease. But to me, that’s not sufficient.
JARVI: We need research on catchment systems – best design for catchment systems, to try to block the larvae from entering into household water supplies as well as agricultural water supplies. We know people can get infected by ingesting contaminated water. We’ve lost a baby – at least one child – that there’s no way this baby could have gotten rat lungworm other than in the bathtub. So, the water issue is a really big issue and we need to have research on that.
And to answer your costs for testing:
http://www.civilbeat.org/2017/11/alan-mc...diagnosis/
“We’ve seen very well-maintained catchment tanks and if you remove the cover, you’ll find dozens of slugs in there,” Jarvi says.
Many Puna residents drink catchment water that’s been run through filtration systems. Jarvi’s group has gotten a $35,000 Karassic Family Foundation grant to test those filters. They’ve found that the larvae pass easily through 20-micron filters, which many homes have. They’ve just begun testing 5-micron filters. Those, and 1-micron filters, should be fine enough to keep the parasites out — ”theoretically.”
“These larvae can bore, and we don’t know that the larvae can’t go around the filter,” Jarvi says. “We just don’t know.”
She thinks a larger study is needed to determine how catchment systems overall can be designed to better prevent rat lungworm. But that study would cost about $600,000.
Completing the “diagnostics expansion study”—which is developing the blood test that that diagnosed Kana Covington — would take another $150,000 to $200,000. To finish the vegetable wash study, Jarvi believes, would require another $60,000 or so. Another crucial study —a “bio-assay” to determine whether rat lungworm larvae are actually dead, and not simply paralyzed or dormant from a treatment — would require yet another $15,000.
FYI Dr. Jarvi is Hawaii's leading expert on Rat Lung.
Dr. JARVI: Education is no doubt very, very, important. But this problem is bigger than that… “Safe eating is healthy eating, and wash your veggies”. Very, very good advice. But washing your veggies with water does not make them safe, it makes them safer. These larvae, these rat lungworm organisms, live in water. We’ve had them in our lab, in the infectious stage, out to three weeks growing just in water. We now have a culture that when you give them a little food we’re out to four months we can keep these guys alive. So, just washing your vegetables in water – especially in an area where you have such high, widespread, unregulated catchment use, where a lot of people do not have fresh potable water to wash their vegetables in. So that’s a very big problem.
COUNCILWOMAN O’HARA: To me that’s not sufficient… where we’re passing out information that is not well researched, documented, firmly identifies ways to avoid transmission of this disease [referring to the Department of Health's Public Service announcements as being unverified information]. We’re not doing enough.
It suggests that people use as small as a 5 micron filter. Most of the filters that are commonly used are 10 or 20 microns. So it was suggested that the use of a 5 micron may protect you from a rat lungworm disease. But to me, that’s not sufficient.
JARVI: We need research on catchment systems – best design for catchment systems, to try to block the larvae from entering into household water supplies as well as agricultural water supplies. We know people can get infected by ingesting contaminated water. We’ve lost a baby – at least one child – that there’s no way this baby could have gotten rat lungworm other than in the bathtub. So, the water issue is a really big issue and we need to have research on that.
And to answer your costs for testing:
http://www.civilbeat.org/2017/11/alan-mc...diagnosis/
“We’ve seen very well-maintained catchment tanks and if you remove the cover, you’ll find dozens of slugs in there,” Jarvi says.
Many Puna residents drink catchment water that’s been run through filtration systems. Jarvi’s group has gotten a $35,000 Karassic Family Foundation grant to test those filters. They’ve found that the larvae pass easily through 20-micron filters, which many homes have. They’ve just begun testing 5-micron filters. Those, and 1-micron filters, should be fine enough to keep the parasites out — ”theoretically.”
“These larvae can bore, and we don’t know that the larvae can’t go around the filter,” Jarvi says. “We just don’t know.”
She thinks a larger study is needed to determine how catchment systems overall can be designed to better prevent rat lungworm. But that study would cost about $600,000.
Completing the “diagnostics expansion study”—which is developing the blood test that that diagnosed Kana Covington — would take another $150,000 to $200,000. To finish the vegetable wash study, Jarvi believes, would require another $60,000 or so. Another crucial study —a “bio-assay” to determine whether rat lungworm larvae are actually dead, and not simply paralyzed or dormant from a treatment — would require yet another $15,000.