Summertime, When People and Parasites Head for the Water

[wdlove]

The more you know about microbiology, the harder it is to go swimming. The ocean not only has the odd macrobiotic sting ray and shark but various sorts of bacteria, dinoflagellates and viruses. That's in a healthy ocean.

As Dr. Michael Beach (his real name), an epidemiologist in the parasitic disease section of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said, "A lot of these bugs just live in the wild and we get in their way."

Dr. Beach is involved in the healthy swimming campaign for the agency. The seashore and rivers, ponds and lakes are part of its concern, because they can certainly contain health hazards, even if they are not polluted. But the current focus is on pools and a parasite called cryptosporidium.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/08/health/08side.html?8hpib

 

[rueyeet]

And you have to post this right after I went swimming in the Atlantic this weekend.

For those of us who refuse to register for nytimes.com (what the heck do they need my information for, if I'm not buying anything?) what constitutes "healthy swimming"?

 

[Frohickey]

I say we flood the world's oceans with chlorine bleach, just so rueyeet can go swimming in the Atlantic anytime they want to.

 

[pooky]

mmmm, parasites. Whenever I feel like my system is getting things back under control, I head out to one of those LA beaches to pick up a few more.

 

[meta-ghost]

...what constitutes "healthy swimming"?

that's the thing...
(from the article) "I called Dr. Beach to ask what the least unhealthy place to swim would be.

"Impossible for me to answer," he said."

it goes on the quote other doc's "I personally don't let my children swim in public pools."

definite overreaction.

 

[bousozoku]

Of course, it's a problem, but if we avoided everything that was bad for us, we'd probably never smile again.

 

[virividox]

i dont care im going the beach this summer

 

[munchmime]

For all the bad, there comes some good?

Isn't this whole thing like the way people and companies tell you to use the really strong anti-bacterial cleaning agents to get rid of 99.9% of all the bacteria, and then you have the scientists on the other end of the spectrum telling you that the more of it you kill, the stronger it becomes, and harder to kill; then by not coming into contact with those strains of the weaker strains of the bacteria, your immune system can't handle the stronger strains because you haven't developed a tolerance for or an immunity to the weaker strain?

it's just like the children who never get sick, and then a common cold is the cause of their death at 26 years of age. Their immune system wasn't able to handle it.

I for one wonder how we, as humans survived all these thousands of years not knowing about all the different kinds of bacteria, and micro-organisms out there, and how they can make us ill, and kill us... YES, even the ones in our tap water. Maybe it's me, but I remember learning of natural selection, and only the strong surviving... isn't that a balance? doesn't there always have to be a balance? if not something goes totally wrong; not enough food, not enough water, shelter, etc.

If I were to listen to all this stuff, I would be a bubble boy, and not know what living is like. I would be very afraid to even take a shower.

Sometimes I think that perhaps we would in some ways be better off without articles warning of these dangers, and having these people put more effort and time, let alone money (they used for these studies) into bettering society in other ways such as cures for things as cancer, AIDS, HIV, and down the line from there.

thats just my 2 cents.
I will still swim and scuba dive. i will drink water from my tap, wipe my counter with the sponge i just used to wash the dishes, and so on.

-speaking of sponges to wash dishes... how is that sanitary and safe if they tell you now to use a cleaner, and paper towels or wipes so you don't spread the bacteria... wouldn't the sponge be spreading the bacteria around the dishes? hmmmmmm.....

just a thought.

-Aaron

 

[redAPPLE]

mmmm, parasites. Whenever I feel like my system is getting things back under control, I head out to one of those LA beaches to pick up a few more.

wha?? it ain't healthy to swim in LA?

 

[latergator116]

Speaking of summer, it is so hot out! Today it was about 95 degreed with very high humidity. I am still sweating in front of my computer with my fan on high!

 

[Anna]

Whatever doesnt kill you...will always make you stronger.

Did you know that the average human eats 12kg of dirt in their lifetime?...as well as eating 8 spiders? i am sure there are enough parasites to make you sick there

BTW...I teach swimming...I am around water 5 days a week and i have only been sick once from teaching related sicknesses...and it was a virus off one of the students- not from the water and it is the biggest pool in my city.

 

[Savage Henry]

Warning: unqualified understanding ahead

I read somewhere that 0.001% of the human body is already made up of parasites. So what is wrong with a couple more to keep the party buzzing.


Incidentally, I love the Google Ads this thread is generating at the bottom of the page.

 

[MongoTheGeek]

Whatever doesnt kill you...will always make you stronger.

Did you know that the average human eats 12kg of dirt in their lifetime?...as well as eating 8 spiders? i am sure there are enough parasites to make you sick there

BTW...I teach swimming...I am around water 5 days a week and i have only been sick once from teaching related sicknesses...and it was a virus off one of the students- not from the water and it is the biggest pool in my city.

A "Social" disease?

 

[Travl]

Basically once the water goes bad....we all die.

 

[bousozoku]

wha?? it ain't healthy to swim in LA?

It's not healthy to breathe and of course, it's not healthy to eat there either.

Strange, a few weeks ago, we had someone killed by poisonous algae which took up home in a creek. From what they ascertained, it may have been responsible for deaths over the years, simply because doctors didn't know any better and diagnosed it as something else.

 

[rueyeet]

I say we flood the world's oceans with chlorine bleach, just so rueyeet can go swimming in the Atlantic anytime they want to.

But that would kill all the fish, and I could never have sushi again!! Nooooooo!!

Aaand....just to save you any further grammatical inconvenience, I'm a she.