Bacterial Infections in Alamosa County – Blame it on the Water System

Health department officials have traced the source of bacterial infection in a town in southern Colorado to the town’s municipal water system. The town in question is Alamosa, where a number of people have fallen ill due to salmonella poisoning, with seven of them having to be admitted to a hospital.

A report by the chief medical officer of the state health department, Ned Calonge, said it would take at least three more weeks to solve the problem so people could go back to drinking water straight from the tap.

The problem has been steadily mounting, culminating in Governor Bill Ritter declaring a state of emergency in Alamosa County Friday, getting the National Guard ready to deal with the issue, and also providing a sum of $300,000 towards finding ways to contain and solve the problem.

Authorities are going about getting the water system disinfected using chlorine, and the city and county have both declared emergencies as well. Officials are also tackling another critical area, the need to provide citizens in the affected areas with clean water. Help is also coming from the water agencies in Denver, Fort Collins, and Aurora.

City and state health officials are offering Tuesday as a conservative deadline, by which time the water system could be completely flushed, according to James Martin, the state health department’s executive director. However, it would take quite a few days more to get it totally disinfected.

Alamosa has a total of about 8,500 residents. Until Friday, 138 of the 8,500 people who make up the population at Alamosa have been reported with suspected salmonella poisoning. The patients do not fit into any specific age pattern, and are anywhere between infancy and 89 years. Laboratory tests have confirmed the illness to be salmonella poisoning in 47 of these patients.

One area that investigators have been focusing on is determining how the contamination actually happened. According to Calonge, the contamination could have occurred due to a compromised storage tank. He also suggested a possibility of cross-contamination through contact with a sewage line.

Hans Kallam, director of the state’s Division of Emergency Management, said residents of the town would not be facing any major water crisis in the near future. They would be receiving safe and bottled drinking water from 45 companies. He also said people could use bulk water from East Alamosa, as it does not have any connection with the city’s water system.

Officials of the state department of health say that while boiling tap water does kill bacteria, it would be a good idea not to use even boiling tap water once officials start flushing of the municipal water system. Officials have also asked people to refrain from giving tap water to pets as well, as they could also be susceptible to the salmonella.

Between 1974 and 2001, there have been just 15 outbreaks of salmonella poisoning from municipal water systems, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the town has been looking to upgrade to a chlorinated system for a while now, the latest outbreak would just give the attempted move the impetus it needs, according to Calonge.