July 22, 2009. History repeats itself: Oregonians get nailed again

In 1954, over 50,000 Oregonians were sickened when the public water supply became contaminated by Giardia, seen above. Medical journals refused to publish the account, stating that Giardia was harmless, even though the scientific community had identified Giardia as disease causing for years. Oregon's Health department refused to take any action (as they have done again with Blastocystis 'hominis').

Dr. Lyle Veazie, a professor at the University of Oregon's Medical School, identified the epidemic and tried to publish an article on this in medical journals.  However, remarkably, no journal would accept his publication on the grounds that there was no proof Giardia could cause disease.

He finally got his study published in 1969, 15 years after the event. 

But even that publication did not raise much interest in the issue.  Oregonians would have to wait 26 years to get any protection from Giardia, and state officials never did help.

In 1980, Congress passed the Clean Water Act, and the story about Oregon's epidemic could finally be published. Congress directed the EPA to force state governments to clean up their act.

After that, OHSU became one of the world centers for Giardia research, and Dr. Ernest Alan Meyer published many of the studies on the organism.