A Parasitological Survey of Natural Water Springs and Inhabitants of a Tourist City in Southeastern Brazil Nilson Branco, Diego Averaldo Guiguet Leal, and Regina Maura Bueno Franco Abstract The goals of this study were to investigate the occurrence of Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts in main springs of Campos do Jorda ˜ o, an important tourist city, in Brazil and to gather the largest amount of para- sitological data from autochthonous population that live in rural areas of this city. The membrane filtration technique followed by direct immunofluorescence assay was employed for concentration and visualization of waterborne protozoa. In the period between June 2003 and May 2004, the presence of at least one pathogenic protozoa was detected in 25.0% (3/12) of the springs studied, with mean concentrations ranging from 0.2 to 0.3 Cryptosporidium sp. oocysts and 0.07 to 0.1 Giardia sp. cysts/L. The coproparasitological investigation conducted in dwellers from two rural communities from this city revealed that 49.2% (91/185) of people had intestinal parasites. Among pathogenic protozoa, Cryptosporidium was the most prevalent species (8.1%) fol- lowed by Giardia duodenalis (5.9%), Entamoeba histolytica/Entamoeba dispar (2.7%), and Blastocystis hominis (2.2%). The most prevalent geohelminths were Ascaris lumbricoides (14.9%) and Trichuris trichiura (9.7%). This study demonstrated the contamination and the distribution of intestinal parasites, especially Cryptosporidium and Giardia species, in different springs of an important tourist city in Brazil, highlighting the need of mon- itoring natural water sources. The high prevalence of intestinal parasitosis detected in some specific popu- lations of this city may function as a link of transmission of different intestinal parasitosis due to soil and water contamination, contributing to the maintenance of parasite life cycles. Therefore, the inclusion of consistent public health interventions with measures that include the protection of springs, the installation of minimum health infrastructure, and primary education of the population are widely necessary, aiming the control and prevention of parasite infections. Key Words: Cryptosporidium—Giardia—Mineral water—Parasitic disease—Springs. Introduction P eople living in poverty throughout the developing world are heavily burdened with neglected communica- ble diseases, particularly parasitic diseases (Ehrenberg and Ault 2005). Some of these neglected diseases may have para- sitic origin that includes soil-transmitted helminthiasis, schistosomiasis, and parasitic zoonoses such as cryptospo- ridiosis and giardiasis (Savioli et al. 2006). Cryptosporidium and Giardia species are recognized world- wide as important causative agents of diarrhea in children and adults. The burden of these enteric protozoa continues to fall heavily on developing regions, where infection is ubiq- uitous and often presents more severe clinical consequences, also represents an important public health problem in devel- oped countries (Smith et al. 2007). In developing countries, cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis are mostly seen during early childhood, where children under 2 years of age are naturally more susceptible to parasitism. These protozoans, as well as the consequences derived from the parasitism, might be responsible for childhood malnutri- tion and have been linked to impaired physical growth and deficiencies in cognitive development in late childhood (Ortega-Pierres et al. 2009). Although cryptosporidiosis is self-limiting in healthy hu- man adults, the infection might be life threatening for those unable to mount an adequate immune response such as children, the elderly, and also immunocompromised patients Department of Animal Biology, Biology Institute, State University of Campinas, Sa ˜ o Paulo, Brazil. VECTOR-BORNE AND ZOONOTIC DISEASES Volume 12, Number 5, 2012 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/vbz.2011.0679 410