Prevention tips
Practice Good Hygiene
- Help keep yourself and your loved ones healthy by washing your hands often with soap and water, especially during key times when you are likely to spread germs.
Avoid Water That Might Be Contaminated
- Do not drink untreated water or use untreated ice from lakes, rivers, springs, ponds, streams, or shallow wells.
- Follow local drinking water advisories.
- If the safety of the drinking water is in doubt (for example, if water source is unknown), use one of the following:
- Commercially bottled water
- Water that has been previously boiled for at least 1 minute and left to cool. At elevations above 6,500 feet (1,981 meters), boil for 3 minutes.
- A filter designed to remove Crypto. The label might read 'NSF 53' or 'NSF 58.' Filter labels that read "absolute pore size of 1 micron or smaller" are also effective.
Avoid Food That Might Be Contaminated
- If you drink milk or apple cider, only buy if it has been pasteurized.
- Do not eat fruits and vegetables washed in water that might be contaminated.
Practice Extra Caution While Traveling
- Do not use or drink inadequately treated water or use ice when traveling in countries where the water might be unsafe.
- Avoid eating uncooked foods when traveling in countries where the food supply might be unsafe.
Practice Safer Sex
- Wait to have sex (vaginal, anal, and oral) for 2 weeks after you no longer have diarrhea. Patients typically stop having Crypto in their poop within 2 weeks after symptoms completely stop.
- Reduce your contact with poop during sex by:
- Washing your hands, genitals, and anus with soap and water before and after sexual activity.
- Using barrier methods during sex. Barrier methods include condoms, dental dams, and cut-open condoms. Sex includes oral (mouth-to-penis, mouth-to-vagina, mouth-to-anus), anal (penis-to-anus), and vaginal (penis-to-vagina) sex. Using latex gloves during anal fingering or fisting.
- Using condoms the right way, every time you have anal and vaginal sex, which will also help prevent other sexually transmitted infections.
- Washing your hands with soap and water immediately after touching a used condom or other barrier method.
- Washing sex toys with soap and water after each use and washing hands after touching used sex toys.
