just to let you know, crypotsporidium is a parasite which can affect most mammals, (humans, cows, sheep etc) it is quite common in calves sheep and deer and most outbreaks occur around calving and lambing time. each infected animal (or person) sheds millions of spores every time the defacate and can still shed spores for months after the diarhea has cleared up.
it usually gets into the water supply from faeces from infected animals getting into the water source (stream, river or lake). this can occur when infected animals defecate while they drink from streams, or from malfunctioning sewage treatment plants.
A average adult needs to ingest approximatley 150 spores to become symptomatic, babies need much less as there immune system have not developed. This is most likely the age group where most of the infected people come from. Showers are safe then, however do be careful that youg children do not drink bathwater when washing them.
deaths are rare from cryptosporidiosis, and if they occur they usually occur in immunosupressed individuals, eg people recieving chemotherapy.
Once cryptosporidium is in water it is very difficult to remove it from the water, normal disinfection doesn't kill it, it must be filtered out with a filter with a pore size less than 1 micron (1 millionth of a metre) (the thickness of a human hair is about 50 microns). this means that a new treatment plant would have to be built so there is no quick fix. A plant of this type was fitted in mullingar a few years back in mullingar after an outbreak there, but because the filters are so small, it kept clogging up and had to be bypassed, (choice no water, or water with risk of crypto)
The other option is to keep animals away from the water source and fix every faulty septic tank, sewage treatment plant around the water source and any feeder streams. not easy either.
unfortunatley the problem doesn't have an easy solution,
all i can say is the best of luck to the lads trying to sort the problem, and hope everyone infected gets better soon.
