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    Klingons Attack

    By Donal on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 4:22pm | Health



    One of my pet peeves is people that don't shower before swimming in a public pool. Even in upper class neighborhood clubs and Ys, I always see Type A guys that rush in, yank on their jammers and rush out of the locker room to get a lane in the pool. No one is as clean as they'd like to imagine.

    Nearly 100 ill after weekend swim meet at Naval Academy

    Nearly 100 people have reported symptoms of viral gastroenteritis after a weekend swim meet at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, state health officials said. ...

    The state health department is still testing stool samples from people who were sick to determine exactly what pathogen caused the illness, said Dr. Lucy Wilson, chief of the health department's center for surveillance, infection prevention and outbreak response. However, the symptoms match those of viral gastroenteritis, which typically passes within 24 to 48 hours, she said.

    Gastroenteritis is caused by noroviruses, which are normally transmitted through contact with an infected person, such as sharing food or a water bottle, or on dirty towels or bathroom doorknobs — "anything where the virus would be on the material," Wilson said.


    Take a shower before putting on your suit. Use soap. Lots of soap. Where it counts.

    In a related story, On BART Trains, the Seats Are Taken (by Bacteria)

    Riders on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system have long complained about germs in the hard-to-clean cloth seats. As Bob Franklin, the BART board president, acknowledged, “People don’t know what’s in there.”

    Now they do.  ...

    Fecal and skin-borne bacteria resistant to antibiotics were found in a seat on a train headed from Daly City to Dublin/Pleasanton. Further testing on the skin-borne bacteria showed characteristics of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the drug-resistant bacterium that causes potentially lethal infections, although Ms. Franklin cautioned that the MRSA findings were preliminary.

    High concentrations of at least nine bacteria strains and several types of mold were found on the seat. Even after Ms. Franklin cleaned the cushion with an alcohol wipe, potentially harmful bacteria were found growing in the fabric.


    Yeah we have cloth seats on light rail.

    Topics: 
    Health

    Comments

    The water in the pools down here in Fl. mostly resemble the chlorinated solution you use the clean cement side walks etc.


    by cmaukonen on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 4:50pm

    PIGS DON'T KNOW THEY STINK !

    I had a coworker, who everytime he'd use the urinal he'd wash his hands. Then we he was all finished. he just walk right out of the restroom.

    I asked him one time and he was more concerned about his Johnson getting dirty....WTHUWT? 

    Have the parent or schools stopped teaching the need for hygiene?

    Also as respects water treatment. You first strain out the solids and the bacteria first, Then you chlorinate........There is a reason for that ORDER, (Carcinogens)

    Besides, the cost to maintain the public pools goes up if you have to use more chlorine to bring the water into balance. Sweat, and urine ( [ammonia] fertilizer for algae) wreaks havoc on the chemistry.

    I wish we could start a National campaign about humans and hygiene and how PIGS don't care....Because PIGS don't know they stink.  


    by Resistance on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 5:22pm

    "Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” - Winston Churchill


    by cmaukonen on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 5:43pm

    The article says people actually got sick on the pool deck during an event so how exactly would have showering before the meet have prevented this specific outbreak?   Not that people should not shower before swimming -- sounds very hygenic and polite -- but noroviruses normally have incubation periods of 24-48 according to the CDC.

    http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/gastro/norovirus-factsheet.htm

    Resistance is right.  Public health education is not as good as it was when more people could remember life before anitbiotics and vaccinations.  


    by EmmaZahn on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 5:59pm

    When polio was still a scourge, public health education and personal hygiene were the bywords for sure.


    by cmaukonen on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 6:10pm

    It was a two-day meet. 800 swimmers swam on Saturday and 100 of them started feeling sick on Sunday. I'm guessing all those swimmers doing warmups and races overwhelmed the pool's chlorination.


    by Donal on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 6:52pm

    100 of them started feeling sick on Sunday

    Sick but still competing?  Definitely a need for more public health education.


    by EmmaZahn on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 7:12pm

    I think I know the type of person who has all of these nasty habits - George Carlin!


    by mageduley on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 6:29pm

    Carlin had a history of cardiac problems spanning several decades, including three heart attacks (in 1978, 1982 and 1991………. He twice underwent angioplasty to reopen narrowed arteries 

    Infective endocarditis (IE) occurs if bacteria, fungi, or other germs invade your bloodstream and attach to abnormal areas of your heart. Certain factors increase the risk of this happening.

    http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/endo/endo_causes.html


    by Resistance on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 7:46pm

    It was snark, Resistance. You know...comedy..satire...that kind of thing? By the way since I noticed you are interested in infectious diseases, you might find this book interesting:

    http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Infectious-Disease-Paul-Ewald/dp/0195111397

     


    by mageduley on Thu, 03/10/2011 - 12:49am

    I know it was mag, so was mine, used as a reenforcement to the original intent of the post  


    by Resistance on Thu, 03/10/2011 - 12:00pm

    See, this is why I always drink as much water as possible before going into a pool. 

    That way, I can release a long, slow, but basically continuous stream of pee around me, which - as you know - is a wonderful, natural, sterilizing agent. Other peoples' bacteria don't stand a chance. 

    Some pools are really helpful, and have this purple tracer that helps you know where you've already gone.


    by quinn esq on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 7:20pm

    In this particualr township, charges will be pressed and the violators prosecuted...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px9A8ZB0HMA

    Do not be fooled 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PmMFaVzbzc 


    by Resistance on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 8:02pm

    I don't DUMP in the pool!

    That's for people like Dick. ;-)


    by quinn esq on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 10:48pm