People should not swim or allow their children to swim when they have diarrhea, Ms. Hlavsa said. “The water you swim in is shared with everyone,” she said. “So what one swimmer does has consequences for all the swimmers.”
SHOOT: Seems like this is caused by human beings defecating in the water. Nice.
A swimming pool can offer relief from summer heat, but swimmers should know what they are jumping into. It could be a soup of nasty parasites.
Reports of gastrointestinal illness from use of public pools and water parks have risen sharply in recent years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The leading culprit is a microscopic organism that lives in human feces.
Called cryptosporidium, it is a parasite transmitted in an egglike shell that can survive as long as 10 days even in chlorinated water. In 2007, the last year for which statistics are available, it was responsible for 31 recreational water outbreaks involving 3,726 people, according to the disease centers — up from 7 outbreaks and 567 people in 2004.
Health officials say the reasons are unclear. “We’re not sure whether it’s a true increase in incidence or an increase in reporting,” said Michele C. Hlavsa, an epidemiologist with the healthy swimming program at the C.D.C.
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clipped from www.nytimes.com
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