Poop in the Pool

[PoolDoc]

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Nearly 100 ill after weekend swim meet at Naval Academy
State health officials investigating pathogen that affected swimmers, coaches, parents at statewide competition

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/b...,2367500.story

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The interesting thing here is that virtually all flavors of gastroenteritis travel by the so-called "fecal-oral" route. In other words, from their butt to your mouth. Poorly sanitized pools (AKA swim-meet pools with chlorine below 2ppm) are a great place for this to happen.

Odds are, the guy that did this knows. Diarrhea may sneak up on you, but you know when it hits.

Fortunately, most poop doesn't cause problems, unless you ingest mass quantities or get it into a wound. (It took me YEARS to actually work this out -- medical and sanitation texts either dance around this fact, or else make wrong statements.)

In fact, recent studies indicate that the best way to treat serious Clostridium difficile infections is NOT antibiotics. After all, it's usually antibiotic therapy which causes these infections in the first place! Rather, the cure is to "ingest fecal material" from an individual with a healthy intestinal flora population.

In other words, you eat poop from someone who's got normal poop bacteria, rather than the intestinal bacteria from hell that Clostridium infected individuals have. (They can use a stomach tube!)

I should have guessed. I've known for years that after waking from hibernation, bears have to 'jump-start' their digestive system, by making their first post-hibernation meals from other animals poop!

Bottom line:
Poop in your pool -- if it's from a HEALTHY person -- is not a disaster for other swimmer's health.

Ben


Here are the links:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/...ransplant.html
http://www.cmaj.ca/earlyreleases/24f...ransplants.dtl
http://www.torontosun.com/news/toron.../17429656.html

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