'87 NC - Shigella (Why u had the runs)

In early July 1987, an outbreak of multiply resistant Shigella
sonnei gastroenteritis occurred among persons who attended
the annual Rainbow Family gathering in North Carolina.
Since that time, four clusters of gastroenteritis due to multiply
resistant S. sonnei have been reported among persons who
had no apparent contact with gathering attendees. Basic
hygiene and sanitary precautions remain the cornerstones of
control measures for shigellosis outbreaks, including those
due to multiply resistant strains. Vigorous emphasis on
handwashing with soap after defecation and before eating
has been shown to reduce secondary transmission of shigellosis.


From 2001 Univ of Washington School of Public Health
& Community Medicine - Fall/Winter 2001

Food- and waterborne
disease outbreaks have occurred in such settings
in the past. For example, during the 1987
Rainbow Family gathering in North Carolina,
more than half of the 12,700 persons who
attended the event became ill with multidrug-resistant
shigella.
To make matter's worse, the
microorganism spread to numerous states after
the event as ill participants returned home.


What was the year/place I got water from the lake to find locals put dead animals in the water supply?

 

Well, how many Gatherings have been by a lake? The only two I can think of off the top of my head are TX '88, CO '92 (Bus Village was parked around a reservoir) and KY '93 (Lake Cumberland was a mile or so out of Front Gate).

Anybody that gets the shits after drinking lake water needn't blame the locals for poisoning it.

 

The 87 gathering was on top of a mountain in the Slick Rock area of the Smoky Mtns. I know the area, from there, and there was not a lake around.....that I remember. There were ALOT of streams and creeks running through the area, i.e....lots of good water.
I know the locals....they wouldn't have contaminated the water...not what hillbillys do.
With so many water sources, it only takes one fuck up with a kids diaper or emptying a shit bucket too close up stream for all hell to break loose.

Love,
HillbillyAnn

 

I have no idea about locals poisoning water but I and tell you that in MO there was a snake that got into the water line & died & there was a rumor that one kitchen had tried to save deer meat & sunk the deer in the creek. The chiggers were a big source of skin infections in MO too.

With NC. JuJu has his theory, A crop duster can thru on the 1st of July, the fs came thru later that day & said that the water was ok to drink now...and 3 days later, everybody was sick. The CDC sent out questioniers using the Rainbow Guide as a mailing list. The questioniers asked which kitchens folks had eaten at and some of the 'kitchens' where actually the names of camp communities. JuJu seriously wonders when the questionier was made because some of the communites listed as kitchens were only there for 2 or 3 days & had left before the outbreak began.

So please remember to wash your hands & cover your shit cuz no matter how an outbreak begins, only you can help break the feces-flys-food-you chain.

Lovin' Y'all!

 

87.. i have a theory.. way to much lsd .. i was there,, an that would be my guess. everyone was so spun that hygene went out the window. nothing more nothing less.

oh also, am i the only one that never got sick in 87????

 

I didn't get sick at all....thank goodness.

HillbillyAnn

 

I was there I was 19 and smart enough to NOT drink anything I did not pack in.... I only ate a few meals and they were from the krishna bus boiling soup pot of porridge.... I too was sparred from getting sick unlike many of our pals.... the rain runoff near the shitters dug to shallow is my long term belief... the creeks and small rivers all around us but the general muck that year was out of control....... some tents in the lower camps flooded with shitter water. I dont think I dared touch my lips nor anyone else's the entire time I was there... I did have one hell of a kidney infection about a month later, I do think it was from the lack of water and some germ brewing for awhile.... I remember my first back in town stop was to get 10 different kinds of juice and my pee... well looked like apple cider.