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The Springville City Pool served as a laboratory May 8 as Utah County Health Department officials provided a stark demonstration of how easily the disease cryptosporidiosis can be spread in a pool.
Utah experienced an outbreak of the nasty disease last year that reached "epidemic proportions," said Ron Tobler, environmental health program manager for the Utah County Department of Health. It was the largest swimming-related outbreak of the disease in the United States' history, he said.
With other outbreaks around the country, the second year has often been even worse than the first, Tobler said. With that in mind, the health department is trying to educate the public about cryptosporidiosis, its causes and how to prevent it. "We are concerned that people understand their responsibility while swimming with others," he said.
Caused by a microscopic parasite called cryptosporidium, the disease is spread when water or surfaces become contaminated with feces from an infected person or animal. A person can contract the disease by swallowing infected water or placing a contaminated item in the mouth. The disease causes severe diarrhea and lasts about two weeks.
The event at Springville's pool was part of the department's educational efforts. During the demonstration, representatives of various newspapers and television stations stood on the side of the pool and watched as blue dye was sprinkled into the pool's deep end. Dye was then placed in a pair of swimming trunks which were dragged through the pool to simulate how a swimmer infected with the germ can soon spread it throughout the pool.
In both cases, the dye crept ominously through the water, sometimes congregating in corners or along the sides. "When you have an accident in the pool, it mixes with the water just like the dye does," Tobler said.
Tobler emphasized that even if pools use high-tech filtering systems, it still takes hours to clean all of a pool's water after an accident.
According to information from the health department, up to a billion cryptosporidiosis germs can be released in a single bowel movement of watery diarrhea. This means one accident in a pool will fill it with germs that will take hours to remove. The germs can live in a chlorinated pool for several days, and it only takes a few germs to make a person sick.
Ultimately, the message for people who are sick is to stay home, Tobler said. Even after the symptoms subside, a person remains contagious; people who have had the disease should stay out of the water for two weeks after they are feeling better.
This includes lakes and reservoirs where the disease can also be spread.
Springville Facilities Superintendent Shaun Orton said Springville has purchased a new system for the Springville pool which uses ultraviolet light to kill germs such as cryptosporidium. The system should be installed by Memorial Day.
The new system will allow the pool to clean its water faster and with less cost, Orton said. Currently when an accident occurs, the pool uses a method called "hyperchlorination" to cleanse the water. This method raises the amount of chlorine in the water and takes nearly two days to complete.
The new UV system will reduce the cleansing time to approximately 12 to 18 hours, meaning the pool could re-open to swimmers faster. Purchasing and installing the UV system came with a $50,000 price tag, but using hyperchlorination throughout the summer would cost $80,000, Orton said.
Tobler said Springville City offered to let the health department use its pool for the demonstration. "We thank Springville immensely for their willingness to do this," he said.
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