Around 16,000 properties have been advised to boil their water and drink only bottled water due to a cryptosporidium outbreak in Brixham. Public Health Boss, Dr Lincoln Sergeant stated that although the outbreak had been “more or less dealt with”, he could not guarantee that people would not continue to become ill over the next two weeks. The company responsible for the contaminated water, South West Water (SWW), has said that it is investigating the cause of the outbreak.
Residents have criticised SWW’s response to the contamination, with many saying that the communication has been poor. Brixham’s MP, Anthony Mangnall has described the company’s response as “contemptible and just generally incompetent”. Mr Mangnall has accused the company of denying the issue was anything to do with them, before they changed their position twenty-four hours later and urged people to boil their water.
Kayley Lewis has described how her 13-year-old son had to go to the accident and emergency department after blood was found in his vomit. Lewis herself lost eight pounds in weight in just six days, while Bryon Freer described falling ill with the parasite as the “worst ailment” he has had in his adult life. SWW has apologised for the impact the outbreak has had, stating that it is working with the UK Health Security Agency and public health partners to investigate the source of the contamination.
Dr Sergeant has urged people to continue to boil their water and to use only bottled water collection points due to the risk of ongoing contamination. He also stated that he was confident the outbreak had been contained, but that it was likely that the number of confirmed cases would continue to rise over the next few weeks
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