The confirmed cases of a waterborne disease caused by a parasite have more than doubled.

There are now 46 confirmed cases of cryptosporidiosis, a diarrhoeal illness, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said – with more than 100 further people reporting similar symptoms in the Brixham area.

Other reported cases of diarrhoea and vomiting in residents and visitors to the south Devon town are also under investigation. Hundreds of locals have also reported feeling unwell over the last two weeks on social media.

MPs and South West Water officials have confirmed the parasite most likely entered water supplies through animal faeces, but an investigation is still ongoing.

What is cryptosporidiosis disease?

The UKHSA first confirmed cases of the disease at around midday on Wednesday, while locals were initially told by South West Water that their tap water was uncontaminated and safe to drink.

But after testing supplies in the Hillhead reservoir, the water company found “small traces” of the parasite cryptosporidium – which causes cryptosporidiosis – and told residents in parts of Brixham and Alston to boil their drinking water on Wednesday.

A total of 16,000 households and businesses in Brixham, Boohay, Kingswear, Roseland and North West Paignton were impacted and offered £15 compensation at first.

Over the next two days, South West Water apologised to those affected and increased the offer to £115. Amid the chaos, one primary school closed its doors on Thursday due to not having safe running drinking water.

‘Very hard questions for water company’

Speaking to Sky News yesterday, South West Water’s chief customer officer Laura Flowerdew confirmed it was likely a broken air valve contaminated by animal faeces that had caused the outbreak.

However, she refused to give a timeframe on how long the incident would be ongoing – leaving thousands of residents facing an uncertain future.

Speaking on Friday at the University of Exeter, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said there will be “very, very hard questions” for South West Water over the outbreak.

“At the moment I think we probably need to give them the space to conduct their investigation; we know that they have identified the source,” she said.

“The public will want to know how on earth that source happened, what was the chain of events that led to this, because of course we all understand the expectation that we all have when we turn our taps on is that [we get] clean drinking water and we want to be able to trust it.”

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‘Expect to see more cases’

Totnes MP Anthony Mangnall also warned the boil notice could last “at least a further six or seven days” and called for more transparency.

Professor Paul Hunter, a specialist in medical microbiology at the University of East Anglia, told Sky News if the parasite was “a continuous thing” present in water supplies for a prolonged period, then “you’d expect to see more cases” for another two weeks.

It comes as hotel owners in the area told Sky News the outbreak has led to people cancelling their stay, while a head chef said “I can’t wash salad in the sink”.

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‘Destroyed our business’

Stephen Colemansfield, owner of Redlands Guest House in Brixham, told Sky News the outbreak has “destroyed our business at the moment”.

“Our guests have cancelled because of the mixed messages that are being sent out by South West Water.”

Rob, head chef at the Steam Packet Inn in Kingswear near Dartmouth, also said his brother-in-law is one of the 46 confirmed cases of cryptosporidiosis and has been sick for two weeks.

The UKHSA is working with Torbay Council, South West Water, NHS Devon and the Environment Agency on the incident.

Colin Smith carries a small suitcase into the dining room of their Newport home and lays it flat on the table in the centre of the room. He pops open both latches.

His wife Jan reaches inside and pulls out a sky blue child’s blanket. She holds it close to her face, closes her eyes and inhales deeply.

“It still smells of him,” she says, softly.

“This is the blanket he was wrapped in when he died.”

Their son, also called Colin, was just seven years old when he died in January 1990. His tiny body was ravaged by Hepatitis C and AIDS.

The suitcase, much like the one most families used to own in the 1980s, is just big enough to hold all the memories of their son’s short life.

Next to the blanket, are his favourite toys including a snow globe and lots of his artwork.

Jan explains that Collin, loved to paint and draw and that he was very talented.

“He was 13 pounds when he died. That’s nothing is it for a seven-year-old?” Jan asks.

The question goes unanswered as a momentary silence fills the room.

Colin was born with haemophilia. The treatment for his blood clotting disorder included a product called Factor VIII.

What his parents didn’t know was that the Factor VIII was made in America using blood farmed from prisoners, drug addicts and sex workers.

Jan can recall all the fine details of that day clearly. Especially the cold, matter-of-fact way the bombshell news was delivered by doctors treating Collin.

“We went to the hospital,” Jan says, and they called us out into a corridor, kids running around, parents, and just told us that Colin had become [infected with] HIV.”

By this time their beautiful little boy had become very sick.

‘You just couldn’t pick him up’

Colin senior is still haunted by the effect the virus had on his son’s body. ‘You could see every sinew and tendon in his body,” he said.

Jan said: “I think it was about ’89 that we realised because the weight loss was incredible. And we had him home for a little while, and you couldn’t just pick him up.

“We had to use a sheepskin because it hurt him. He would say: ‘Mum you’re hurting, it’s hurting’.”

Colin was treated by Professor Arthur Bloom, who died in 1992. But in the 1980s, he was one of the country’s leading haemophiliac specialists.

However, documents shown at the Infected Blood Inquiry prove Bloom’s research carried great risks and these were never explained to Colin’s parents.

There is a record of the first time Colin went into hospital that shows that he had never been treated for his haemophilia at this point.

Previously untreated patients were known to be useful for research as their responses to new treatments could be tracked. Patients exactly like Colin.

Also shown to the Infected Blood Inquiry was a letter from Prof Bloom to a colleague after another visit by Colin to hospital saying he’s been given Factor VIII and acknowledging that even though this was the British version there was still a risk of Hepatitis but that “this is just something haemophiliacs have to accept”.

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And a letter, dated 24 June 1983, from Prof Bloom to colleagues discusses the risk of AIDS. They accept that one possible case of AIDS has been reported.

Colin’s parents are convinced their son was being used in secret trials.

“I think Colin was just unlucky enough to be born at the right time. Newly diagnosed haemophiliac, never been treated,” his father explained.

“Which is what we were after, because as documentation states that they are cheaper than chimpanzees, you know. You treat a chimp once, you can follow these children throughout their lives. And that’s what was going on.

“And this was going on from the ’70s. Colin was born in 1982. Yet they still infected him. How do you justify that?”

His mother said that they trusted the doctors at the time and never questioned their son’s treatment. “Just when we think back – at the time no, we didn’t. But when we think back, it was just blood tests. Blood tests, blood tests, blood tests.”

Hate campaign

The threat of HIV and AIDs was only just emerging. And this ignorance drove a hate-fuelled campaign against all those impacted.

This stigma forced Colin and Jan to move home and be shunned by some of their own community. All while still caring for their dying son.

“It became public when he needed to start school, for nursery, and all the parents protested and said: ‘We’re not having an AIDS kid in this school’, because we’ve been known as the AIDS family. We had AIDS that were [written] on the house and you’re not talking little.

“Well, it was like six-foot letters ‘AIDS DEAD’, we had crosses scraped into the door. The phone calls in the middle of the night were not very nice. They were the worst.”

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As Colin’s condition deteriorated his parents decided to bring him home for what would be his last Christmas with the family. It was against the wishes of Prof Bloom.

Jan and Colin were told haemophiliacs with AIDS should die in hospital and be cremated quickly. But the family ignored the hospital.

“And you know what,” Jan says. “He asked for a bike. And we actually got him a bike. He never rode it, obviously because he was too ill. But he wanted a bike. And I’m not going to not get him a bike. Because they all have bikes. But Colin never, never even sat on one.”

That difficult decision to remove Colin from hospital to spend his last days with his family at home proved to be the right one.

“He was on my lap and he just got up to you, didn’t he?” Jan says looking at her husband. “He said: ‘I can’t see, daddy. I can’t see’. And then he just lay back. My hand was on his chest.

“And, you know, for a mother to actually feel the rise and fall of his chest. Waiting for it to stop. Because that’s what I was doing.

“I was waiting for it to stop. And then it stopped. And I just said: ‘I think he’s gone’. And I remember shaking him a little bit, but he’d gone.”

‘I want my son to have his name back’

On Monday, Sir Brian Langstaff will deliver the long-awaited report into the infected blood scandal.

It has taken campaigners like Jan and Colin decades to achieve this. They are clear on what this report must say and how the government must respond.

Colin senior lives with the guilt of not protecting his son. He wants accountability.

“I want justice to be served properly not hypothetically. Let’s see the people who did this, hopefully criminal charges. It is manslaughter at least. I gave my son over to his killers, you know, and I can’t get to grips with that,” he says.

For Jan, it will be recognition for a lifetime of heartbreak and grieving.

“I want people to recognise my son. And I want to be able to go to the cemetery and say, we’ve done it. And you’ve done it. That’s what I want. And I want an apology.

“People say it’s the money, it’s not the money. And I can’t get that through to people. It’s not the money. I want recognition.

“I want my son to have his name back. His name is Colin John Smith. And that’s what I want people to remember.”

Sky News will have full coverage of the infected blood report on TV, online and on the Sky News app on Monday.

It’s boxing’s biggest fight of the century.

And both Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have good reason to believe they’ll walk out of the Ring of Fire as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

Last night, Fury weighed in at 262lbs (18st 10lbs) – making him two stone heavier than Usyk, who clocked in at a substantial career heaviest of 233½lbs (16st 9lbs), about 12lbs more than he’s ever scaled before.

While Fury refused to look at his opponent during Thursday’s news conference, he did not back down at the weigh-in, where the pair almost came to blows before being separated by their entourages.

The tense occasion also gave the pair a chance to exchange their final verbal jabs before stepping into the ring.

Fury declared he would knock Usyk’s “spark out”.

“I’m ready to rock and roll,” he added. “I’m coming for his heart. F**k his belts, I’m coming for his heart.”

More composed, Usyk’s last message to his competitor was: “Don’t be afraid, I will not leave you alone tomorrow.”

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Hundreds of fans had packed the weigh-in venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Fury and Usyk’s supporters each chanting for their fighter.

The old boxing saying that “good big ‘un beats a good little ‘un” doesn’t apply when it comes to Usyk.

The Ukrainian is considered the most gifted boxer of his generation and because he beat a bigger man in the form of Anthony Joshua – twice – he holds three of the four heavyweight titles.

But Fury has said this isn’t important. With his typical bluntness, the British boxer said: “AJ isn’t worthy to tie my shoelaces.”

His opponent, though, is not fighting for just himself.

Usyk fought on the frontline at the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine, until President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told him to serve his country fighting in the ring.

A man of few words, he said: “It’s a big event for Ukraine. For me, it’s a big fight.”

Here in Riyadh, nobody can agree on who is most likely to win.

Fury was disappointing in his last fight when he almost lost to novice boxer Francis Ngannou at the end of 2023. But now he looks toned and slim.

He’s clearly put the work in for this one.

Derek Chisora has fought – and lost to – both men. He knows what it takes to face them and counts them as friends. But even he can’t call it.

“Can I be honest with you?” he said. “I don’t know. You’re the first person I’ve said that to, that I don’t know. This is difficult.

“This is why we love this sport. Because you don’t know who’s going to win.”

This fight should have taken place in February, but a freak cut to Fury’s eye in training meant it had to be pushed back until now.

Will Usyk target this injury as a weak point? Will Fury target the smaller man with body shots?

It’s also worth noting this intriguing clash between two showmen wouldn’t have happened without Saudi money.

The reported purse for each man is around an eye-watering £100m and fans have travelled in big numbers to see boxing history unfold.

It’s exactly what Saudi Arabia wants – to open up and be seen as a modernised tourist destination capable of hosting huge sporting events.

Legendary promoter Bob Arum, who has worked with the likes of Muhammad Ali, said it doesn’t get bigger than this.

“Every era has big, big fights,” he said. “And for this era, this is the biggest fight that you can get.”