Health Alert for PA pools

[bloomautomatic]

Wash your hands!

After 2 ½ weeks of stomach pains and diarrhea, the doctors have diagnosed my wife with Cryptosporidiosis, which is caused by the parasite Cryptosporidium. We got a call today from the PA Dept. of Health asking where we eat, where we swim, etc, because this is the first case of it in this area. Next step is to get our 1 yr old tested. “we need a stool sample from him.” “how many dirty diapers do you want?”

After reading up on it, it’s most likely spread through water at pools, hot tubs, etc. It is resistant to chlorine, so it can survive for days in a pool. Earlier this month (Aug 2007) there were outbreaks in Chester and Montgomery county, info here -
http://www.dsf.health.state.pa.us/he...A=171&Q=248461
http://www2.montcopa.org/health/cwp/...,3,Q,59466.asp

We are in Washington County in southwestern, PA, so it seems that it has spread this way. The only pool we go to is at the Mon Valley YMCA in Charleroi, PA. PA Dept of Health is contacting them about it. Before she started having symptoms, she’d take our son there 2-3 times a week.

We don’t know exactly where she became exposed to it, but so far that seems like the most likely source. There are other sources of exposure

Here’s some more info on it from the CDC -
http://www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/DPD/parasi...poridiosis.htm
And from Kenyon College -
http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/bio3...ahs/crypto.htm

Hopefully no one else will have to go through this ordeal.

Vince

[PisnNapalm]

Thanks for the heads up.