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    Campus, County Combine Efforts Against Parasite


    The Public Health Department of Santa Barbara County and UCSB health and safety officials are cooperating on an investigation of the illness of an 11-month-old child who was hospitalized this month with a rare parasitic infection known as raccoon roundworm.
    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 11 cases have been reported in the United States since 1980. The infection often leads to serious ocular or neurological damage and can be fatal.
    The infant is enrolled at the university's Orfalea Family Children's Center, although there is no way to determine if that was where the child was exposed to this illness, which is not transmitted through human contact. On learning of the child's illness and likely diagnosis, since confirmed by state health officials, the staff of the center notified all parents of children enrolled there.
    In addition, UCSB Environmental Health and Safety staff immediately began identifying potential contamination areas and cleaning them up.
    The local child was scheduled to be released from Cottage Hospital last week. The family has not been publicly identified by name to respect its privacy.
    Dr. Elliot Schulman, the county's health officer, said the disease has appeared only in individual cases, not clusters, and is very rare. The Public Health Department has posted a "Raccoon Roundworm Alert" on its Web site <www.sbcphd.org>.
    The parasitic roundworm lives in the digestive tract of raccoons and its eggs are shed in the feces. Newly deposited eggs take from two to four weeks to become infective. The infection is contracted through oral ingestion of the eggs. Because young children and toddlers sometimes put foreign objects into their mouths, they are more susceptible than adults.
    Raccoons are prevalent in the county, and the campus is no exception. Health officials urged basic precautions, including avoiding direct contact with raccoons and removing their access to food.
    Larry Parsons, acting director of Environmental Health and Safety on campus, said his department was working with Housing and Residential Services to coordinate cleanup and education efforts at the child care center and student family housing. His department is working with the homeowners association at West Campus Faculty Housing to train contract grounds personnel in the identification and cleanup of potentially contaminated sites.