An outbreak of diarrhea-causing parasitic diseases linked to swimming pools is spreading in Northern Kentucky.
The Northern Kentucky Department of Public Health has confirmed There have been about a dozen cases of cryptosporidiosis in the region and many of the people confirmed to have contracted the disease had visited swimming pools in their area.
The parasite that causes crypto, Cryptosporidium hominins, is highly resistant to chlorine, the essential ingredient for keeping swimming pools clean. Normal concentrations of the chemical in pools do not destroy it.
The origin of the outbreak remains unknown, but a family recreation center with pools and water slides called Silverlake in Erlanger, Kentucky, had to close to increase chlorine levels and kill any remnants of the parasite.
Silverlake, a family pool and fitness club in Erlanger, Kentucky, recently reopened after having to increase chlorine levels in its pools to kill the crypto parasite that is making people sick
A person infected with the parasite spreads the infectious spores through his feces.
Another person becomes ill when he accidentally touches or swallows infected feces.
When these spores are ingested, they migrate to the small intestine and invade the intestinal cells to produce more spores.
As the parasitic cells grow, they damage the intestinal lining, causing watery diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, and low-grade fever.
The infection is usually self-limiting, meaning it goes away on its own without medical treatment. The infection usually lasts about two weeks.
Unless a person has particularly weak immune systems, the body’s immune system attacks the parasite and limits its ability to multiply in the gastrointestinal tract.
Therefore, children and the elderly, who often have weaker immune systems, are at greater risk of serious illness that lasts for several weeks.
Steve Divine, director of Environmental Health and Safety at the Northern Kentucky Health Department, said Swimming pools need to be ‘super chlorinated’ to kill the harmful parasite: ‘Raise the chlorine level much higher than you normally would for daily use.
‘That should last for a few hours and then it should drop back to normal levels before people can swim again.’
Silverlake did so when the health department discovered that about half of all cryptocurrencies came from there.
The club released a statement assuring the public that the pool was “super-chlorinated” to ensure levels were well above the necessary levels to kill crypto.
“Once this process was completed and the chlorine levels were back to a safe level, we received approval from the health department to reopen the pool. This process took over 42 hours.”
The origins of the outbreak remain unknown, though about half of the people who got sick are believed to have visited Silverlake. Health Department officials expect the current number of crypto cases to rise
As summer fun resumes in Silverlake, Mr. Divine remains confident the outbreak won’t stop there: “We have at least 12 cases that have been tested and confirmed. That number is going to go up.”
The infection can spread quickly in the pool, no matter how closely chlorine levels are monitored.
The standard chlorine level in swimming pools of one to three parts per million is not enough to kill the pathogen, which can survive for about a week, depending on the water temperature.
An infected person can shed millions of cryptospores in their feces. A small amount that ends up in a swimming pool can cause widespread illness.
By superchlorinating the parasite until it dies, the chlorine level is raised to about 20 parts per million and maintained at that level for about 13 hours.
In addition to swimming pools, daycare centers are also hotbeds of infection, accounting for 13 percent of outbreaks.
Mr Divine said: ‘I’m not just worried about swimming pools at the moment, I’m worried about daycare centres. And now that schools are back open, those too.’
The CDC advises everyone who uses the pool to rinse off in the shower before and after swimming, to take children who are in the pool to the toilet frequently and make sure they wash their hands thoroughly, to avoid swimming with children who have recently had diarrhea, and to never change a baby’s diaper at the edge of the pool; always do so in the toilet.
Dr. Joseph Eisenberg, chief of the epidemiology department at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, said: ‘It is difficult not to swallow water when a child is actively in the water and keeps his head under water all the time.
‘A parent can be proactive in ensuring that the swimming facility is doing a good job of managing risks in the pool.’
And if you do get infected, make sure you drink plenty of fluids, Dr. Eisenberg says.
“Especially if it’s a child who has diarrhea. The loss of fluids can lead to more serious illness, and getting fluids through an IV is something we can all try to prevent.”
