Crypto parasite making swimmers sick in Texas

DALLAS — A waterborne illness in pools, lakes and water parks has sickened at least 100 North Texas swimmers and may have killed one, a dramatic increase when compared to summers past. Experts say they don't know exactly why there's been a spike in the outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis, a diarrhea disease. But they point to a variety of possible factors, including a true increase in cryptosporidiosis, availability of a prescription drug to treat it and greater public awareness of the illness, commonly known as crypto.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5920256.html

Cryptosporidium

Cryptosporidium is a protozoan pathogen of the Phylum Apicomplexa and causes a diarrhoeal illness called cryptosporidiosis. Other apicomplexan pathogens include the malaria parasite Plasmodium, and Toxoplasma, the causative agent of toxoplasmosis. Unlike Plasmodium, which transmits via a mosquito vector, Cryptosporidium does not utilize an insect vector and is capable of completing its life cycle within a single host, resulting in cyst stages which are excreted in faeces and are capable of transmission to a new host.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptosporidium