Recreational Water Illness
       Stay Healthy While Swimming This Summer
 



What is Recreational Water Illness?  
      RWI is the result of the injestion of microorganisms which live in untreated water.
     Organisms that can cause recreational water illness (RWI) can be found in swimming pools, water parks, water spray parks, hot tubs, lakes, rivers, and oceans.

     Some organisms, like Cryptosporidium that causes diarrhea, can even live for days in well-maintained pools treated with chlorine.  Cryptosporidium infection (cryptosporidiosis) is a gastrointestinal disease.  The primary symptom is diarrhea. This illness begins when the tiny cryptosporidium parasite enters your body and travels to your small intestine. Cryptosporidium
then begins its life cycle inside your body — burrowing into the walls of your intestines
 and then later being shed in your feces.

In most healthy people, a cryptosporidium infection produces watery diarrhea and the infection usually goes away within a week or so. If you have a compromised immune system, a cryptosporidium infection can become life-threatening without proper treatment.



Three steps swimmers can do to help keep germs
from causing illnesses (RWIs) at the pool:



  Don't swim when you have diarrhea. Your germs can spread
    in the water and make other people sick.

  Don't swallow the pool water. Avoid getting water in your mouth.    

  Practice good hygiene. Shower with soap before swimming and 
   wash your hands after using the toilet or changing diapers.
   Germs on your body end up in the water. 



Three Steps for Parents of Young Kids
to keep germs out of the pool:

   Take your kids on bathroom breaks or check diapers often.
     Don't wait to hear "I have to go" before taking them, it may be to late.

   Change diapers in a bathroom or a diaper-changing area and not at poolside.
    Germs can spread in and around the pool.
 
  Wash your child thoroughly (especially the rear end) with soap and water
    before swimming. Invisible amounts of fecal matter can end up in the pool.

For more information check out these websites:

       Center for Disease - Definition of Cryptosporidiosis
                            http://www.cdc.gov/crypto/

              Breakdown on Cryptosporidium from Wikipedia
                                          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptosporidium

                                   Center for Disease Control - Answers & Questions about RWI's
                                                        http://cdc.gov/healthyswimming/
                                         





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Revised 20 July 2011