Brainerd diarrhea is a sudden-onset watery, explosive diarrhea

Diarrhea

Diarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...

 that lasts for months and does not respond to antibiotic

Antibiotic

An antibacterial is a compound or substance that kills or slows down the growth of bacteria.The term is often used synonymously with the term antibiotic; today, however, with increased knowledge of the causative agents of various infectious diseases, antibiotic has come to denote a broader range of...

s; the cause of Brainerd diarrhea is unknown. Brainerd diarrhea was first described in Brainerd, Minnesota

Brainerd, Minnesota

Brainerd is a city in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 13,590 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Crow Wing County and one of the largest cities in Central Minnesota...

 in 1983.
It has been associated with the consumption of raw milk

Raw milk

Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized.-History:Humans consumed raw milk exclusively prior to the industrial revolution and the invention of the pasteurization process in 1864. During the industrial revolution large populations congregated into urban areas detached from the...

 and untreated water. Of the ten outbreak

Outbreak

Outbreak is a term used in epidemiology to describe an occurrence of disease greater than would otherwise be expected at a particular time and place. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire continent. Two linked cases of a rare infectious...

s reported since 1983, nine have been in the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

  The characteristics of each outbreak have been similar to that caused by an infectious agent. Although a comparatively large outbreak (117 patients) occurred in 1996 in Fannin County, Texas

Fannin County, Texas

As of the census of 2000, there were 31,242 people, 11,105 households, and 7,984 families residing in the county. The population density was 35 people per square mile . There were 12,887 housing units at an average density of 14 per square mile...

., the largest outbreak (122 patients) was the original one in Brainerd, MN. There have been no secondary cases reported in any of the outbreaks, suggesting that the
causative agent

Disease causative agent

The term disease causative agent usually refers to a biological agents pathogen that causes a disease. Technically, the term can also refer to a toxin or toxic chemical that causes illness such as parasites or bacteria....

 cannot be passed

Transmission (medicine)

In medicine and biology, transmission is the passing of a communicable disease from an infected host individual or group to a conspecific individual or group, regardless of whether the other individual was previously infected...

from person to person, but boiling water appears to inactivate the Brainerd agent. Although there is no treatment available, the disease does appear to resolve itself, although this process takes months if not years.

External links

• CDC information on Brainerd Diarrhea