CDC Partners with NSPF to Create Crypto Outbreak Alert

[Barry Adair]

Issue 2, April 2008

Quick Hits
Registration is
now open for the 2008 World
Aquatic Health™ Conference in Colorado Springs! Take advantage of early registration discounts and sign up today!
Click here!

The CDC has recently updated the Fecal Accident Response Recommendations for Pool Staff.
Download the new PDF here.

Introducing the Aquatic Play Feature™ Handbook!
Click here!

CDC Partners with NSPF to Create Crypto Outbreak Alert System

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Swimming Pool Foundation® (NSPF) have established a Cryptosporidium (Crypto) outbreak alert system that will be broadcast to some of the over 43 thousand individuals in the NSPF e-mail contact database. When CDC and NSPF become aware of an outbreak, NSPF will broadcast a regional email Outbreak Alert to individuals and to professional aquatics groups. The CDC and NSPF encourage other organizations to transmit the Outbreak Alert to their contacts in the region. To sign up to receive outbreak alert notifications, or review the toolkit’s contents, visit www.nspf.org/cryptotoolkit.html.
Crypto is a chlorine-resistant parasite which causes the gastrointestinal illness cryptosporidiosis. Even well-maintained, treated aquatics venues (pools, recreational water parks, interactive spray grounds, etc.) can spread Crypto. Therefore, it is important that pool operators, public health officials, and the public work together to prevent Crypto from getting in the water, and to ensure the facility is being operated properly in order to minimize the risk that the public will contract the disease. Unfortunately, many aquatics managers are not aware when a Crypto outbreak occurs or how to minimize or prevent an outbreak from spreading to their pool. To bridge this gap, the Crypto Outbreak Alert System has been created.
According to the CDC, in 2007, there were at least 18 documented cryptosporidiosis outbreaks related to aquatics venues, the largest one in Utah affecting more than 1,900 people. Other large outbreaks, including the New York outbreak in 2005, demonstrate that Crypto outbreaks can quickly spread to impact many states, facilities, and thousands of people. “There is no doubt that outbreaks will happen this season and they will spread,” says Dr. Michael J. Beach, Associate Director for Healthy Water with the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne and Enteric Diseases (NCZVED) at the CDC. “This new system is a tool to help us contain outbreaks,” he adds.
Each Outbreak Alert will include the general location of the outbreak. The Alert will have a link to the prevention toolkit on the NSPF website. This toolkit will have procedures and preventative measures to reduce the spread of the outbreak. Though containment is critical, prevention is paramount. The toolkit will include posters, brochures, consumer and facility guidance documents and two free videos from the 2007 World Aquatic Health™ Conference. Aquatic facility management should use the toolkit to educate consumers, lifeguards, swim-team members, coaches, day-care groups, etc. not to use aquatic facilities if they have had diarrhea within the last two weeks.
Facilities should also consider other measures to reduce outbreak risks. Studies have shown that using supplemental disinfection, such as in-line ultraviolent radiation and ozone, can be helpful to reduce the transmission of Crypto, providing all of the water passes through the device. Additional strategies to reduce risk include periodic super chlorination and improving water circulation throughout the pool, increasing turnover rates, using flocculants or water clarifiers, and/or replacing water.
For more information about healthy swimming visit your state’s website (http://www.cdc.gov/healthyswimming/state.htm) or CDC’s Healthy Swimming website (www.cdc.gov/healthyswimming).

This newsletter is a monthly communication to professionals in the pool and spa industry fromthe National Swimming Pool Foundation® (NSPF®). The NSPF® is a non-profit organizationfounded in 1965, committed to improving public health by encouraging healthier living through aquatic education and research

[bdoles2]

Thanks Barry! Good stuff as always.

Have you downloaded the Fecal Accident Response document? I love the first thing you see on the front page - "What do you do when you find poop in the pool"

Me, I haul *****.

It's good reading, and actually kind of humorous in a sick way.