Stop going into hotel pools when you have diarrhea, CDC says

The Verge ^ | May 17, 2018, 1:30pm EDT | By Rachel Becker@RA_Becks

[BenLurkin]

. In fact, the water can be so contaminated that it’s been making thousands of Americans sick.

The CDC sorted through nearly 500 outbreaks linked to pools, spas, and waterparks that made more than 27,200 people sick and killed eight people between 2000 and 2014. Roughly one-third of those outbreaks were traced back to hotels, motels, inns, and lodges, according to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. That means that the managers at vacation spots still have to do better at keeping their aquatic facilities clean. And the public can help by remembering one simple rule, the CDC says: “Don’t swim or let your kids swim if sick with diarrhea.”

Outbreaks occur when these bugs escape the killing powers of chemical disinfectants. Chlorine and bromine are usually enough to kill Legionella and Pseudomonas, but these bugs can survive in dirty pools by forming a tough layer of gooey sludge known as a biofilm — especially when the disinfectants aren’t strong enough. The hardest to kill, though, is Cryptosporidium. At the concentrations of chlorine the CDC recommends, most bugs die in minutes, but Crypto can survive for more than seven days, the CDC says.

The best way to stop Crypto is to prevent contamination in the first place, which means stopping people with diarrhea from getting into the water. Local public health departments as well as the CDC have been working to raise awareness, and the good news is that it seems to be working: while outbreaks of Cryptosporidium climbed between 2000 and 2007, they plateaued after that. Skin rashes caused by Pseudomonas also seem to be dropping.

[rdl6989]

This seems reasonable.

[Wolfie]

Have a great Summer everybody!

[Samurai_Jack]

there’s no P in my OOL

[House Atreides]

Stop going into hotel pools...PERIOD. I never let my kids go into them.

[I want the USA back]

I will never go into a public pool.

[Mashood]

I din no.

[1Old Pro]

I have to say that recently at a hotel pool I saw a sign reading ““Don’t swim if sick with diarrhea.”

I had to ask myself, do people actually do that??? UGH I guess so.

[cherry]

how about incontinent older people?...

[SIDENET]

When I have diarrhea, I don’t even leave the house.

[DugwayDuke]

Yes, they do and they let children who are not yet potty trained into the pool as well.

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

there’s no P in my OOL

And the 'P' is silent in 'swimming'...

[mewzilla]

From a year ago....

Out of the pool! Outbreaks linked to crypto parasites on the rise

😨

[AU72]

When I was growing up we had a large public pool that was not filtered. They would change the water twice a week. The color of the water would go from blue to chartreuse.

[miserare]

Ugh! I stopped going into public pools thirty years ago...There's not enough chlorine in the world!😱😜☠️

[ETL]

[Simon Green]

[dsrtsage]

CDC takes the joy out of everything

[ETL]

[Magnum44]

Reasonable??? Good God, have we devolved and dumbed down so much that this is not the most basic common sense knowledge? Life has become really scary. Fifty years ago, if you even thought about jumping in a pool while you had diarrhea, you’d be publically flogged.