Fecal fountains: CDC warns of diarrheal outbreaks linked to poopy splash pads

A 2-year-old enjoys the spray of water in a splash pad in Los Angeles on June 20, 2022.

Enlarge / A 2-year-old enjoys the spray of water in a splash pad in Los Angeles on June 20, 2022. (credit score: Getty | Al Seib)

On this summer time’s record-blazing warmth, a spritz of crisp, cool water seems like scrumptious bliss. Every drop providing brisk aid because it pitter-patters in your face, quenching your scorching pores and skin.

However if you happen to discover such euphoric respite at a youngsters’s splash pad, that soothing spray might shortly flip to a sickening spew, because the drips and drops could also be doused with diarrheal pathogens. Every patter might supply a splat of infectious germs that, if unintentionally ingested, might rework you right into a veritable fecal fountain within the ensuing days.

That is the warning from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, at the very least. This week the company printed a report outlining two gastrointestinal outbreaks linked to a single leisure splash pad in Kansas. The 2 outbreaks, which occurred days aside in June 2021, concerned two totally different pathogens—Shigella micro organism and norovirus—and collectively sickened at the very least 27 individuals. Though some circumstances are particular to that individual splash pad in Kansas, the outbreaks spotlight the frequent threat of such amenities, which are sometimes unregulated.

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