A parasitic infection called Crypto is on the rise in U.S. swimming pools
The authorities say the parasite can make ‘healthy people sick for up to three weeks with watery diarrhoea, stomach cramps, nausea, or vomiting’
By Kevin Loria
The parasitic infection Cryptosporidium — known as Crypto — is on the rise in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The parasite is the most common cause of diarrhoea linked to swimming pools and water parks, and it spreads when people swallow something that has come into contact with the faeces of a sick person (such as pool water).
The CDC says the infection can make “healthy people sick for up to three weeks with watery diarrhoea, stomach cramps, nausea, or vomiting, and can lead to dehydration.”
In 2016, there were at least 32 outbreaks in the country, double the number from 2014. In 2016, Ohio identified 1,940 people with Crypto after observing only 571 cases annually between 2012 and 2015.
The Crypto parasite is hard to kill, since it can survive the standard levels of chlorine and other pool disinfectants that kill most other germs within a few minutes. To get rid of Crypto, the CDC recommends closing pools after contamination for an hours-long period of “hyperchlorination.”
Keeping Crypto out of a pool also means relying on people to be responsible about showering before getting in a pool and staying away from the water if they’ve recently suffered from diarrhoea. But that doesn’t always happen — a recent survey by the Water Quality and Health Council found that 25 per cent of adults said they’d swim within an hour of having diarrhoea and just over half never shower before getting in the pool.