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During a short term investigation, 1 outdoor and 15 indoor swimming pools were examined for the presence of amoebae. Of all isolates from 13 pools, 43.6% belonged to the genus Acanthamoeba. The genus Naegleria accounted for 7.3% of the isolates, but none belonged to the pathogenic N. fowleri. A high percentage (70%) of the Acanthamoeba strains tested showed virulence for mice.
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A bacteriological study was carried out on the first Leisure Centre swimming pools in the United Kingdom to be disinfected with ozone/chlorine. Results suggested that a free chlorine concentration of approximately 0.8 mg/l was necessary to maintain the pools in a bacteriologically satisfactory condition. This amount of free chlorine was similar to that required when the pool was disinfected with chlorine alone. However, the associated amount of combined chlorine was much lower when disinfection was by ozone/chlorine and this gave more acceptable bathing conditions. Implications for the manamgement of pools disinfected by this method are discussed.
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A reservoir of pathogenic Naegleria fowleri has been located in the cracked wall of a swimming pool where repeated outbreaks of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis were observed between 1962 and 1965.
In the fall of 1985, an outbreak of giardiasis occurred among several swimming groups at an indoor pool in northeast New Jersey. Nine clinical cases were identified, eight of whom had Giardia positive stool specimens. All were female; seven were adults (greater than 18 years) and two were children. The attack rate was highest (39 per cent, 5/13) for the ladies lap group who had exposure on one day. These cases had no direct contact with children or other risk factors for acquiring Giardia. Infection most likely occurred following the ingestion of swimming pool water contaminated with Giardia cysts. The source of Giardia contamination was a handicapped child who had a fecal accident in the pool. He was a member of a group that swam at the same time as the ladies lap group. A stool survey of the handicapped group showed that of the 20 persons tested, nine were positive for Giardia, including the specimen from this child. Examination of the pool records showed that no chlorine levels had been taken on the day of the fecal accident and that on the following day the chlorine level was zero. This is the second report of Giardia transmission among swimming pool attendees. It emphasizes the need to maintain appropriate chlorine levels in swimming pools and to institute measures to clear pools after a fecal accident.
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Forty-six people became ill with vomiting, diarrhoea and headache within days of an outdoor swimming pool opening for the summer season in a small seaside village. During the weekend of the outbreak, 185 tickets to the pool had been sold. It was found that 34 bathers were ill, and one subject had vomited into the pool. All other cases arose after this incident. The risk of infection was greatest among those who swallowed pool water (24/28 versus 10/17, p = 0.07). Echovirus 30 was isolated from the case who vomited into the pool and from six other cases. Normal chlorine levels had not been adequate to contain the infection risk from vomitus, and, in future, pool attendants witnessing such incidents should consider closing the pool to the public and seeking advice on superchlorination.
Rats were trained to escape to visible or to hidden platforms in a swimming pool and then given probe trials, which requires that they search for a platform that had been removed or repositioned. To solve the tasks, they simultaneously used a number of behavioral strategies including position responses, cue responses, and place responses. On the probe trials, they not only displayed behaviors that were reinforced during training, including searches in the quadrant where the platform had been located and swims across the point where the platform had been, but they also displayed novel behaviors, including swims to previously used start points on the pool wall and swims that retraced previously used routes to the platform. Rats trained on the place task (hidden platform) made more swims across the platform's previous location, whereas rats trained on the cue task (visible platform) made more returns to previously used start points. When the number of start points or number of platform locations used during training was varied, swimming patterns on the probe trials also changed. Increases in the number of start points produced more returns to start points, whereas increases in the number of platform locations produced more searches for platforms. The results reveal that rats make coextensive use of all relevant strategies to solving spatial navigation tasks. Also, their search patterns on probe trials reflect previously reinforced behaviors as well as novel unconditioned search behaviors. The implications of the results for studies of the neural basis of spatial navigation and/or animal models of human memory are discussed.
The purpose of the study was the characteristic of physico-chemical and bacteriological features of water quality in three swimming pools of standard type accepted for most pools in the country, and it was tried to assess their sanitary-hygienic state in relation to the accepted sanitary standards. The study was carried out in the years 1991-1992 taking water samples from each pool twice in a month during water removal, and once in the whole study during pool filling. The physico-chemical and bacteriological studies were carried out by the methods evolved at the National Institute of Hygiene, and the results were compared with the obligatory standards. It was found that physico-chemical parameters of water quality different only slightly between the tested pools. Most evident differences were observed in chloride concentrations. It was noted that falling free chlorine concentration in a pool was associated with increasing bacterial contamination of water. The degree of bacterial contamination of water in that pool was above the permissible value in 18% of the studied samples. The obtained results point out water quality depends, in the first place, on correct performing of disinfection, which was not always adequate in these pools.
A rapid, in situ thermonuclease test that identifies colonies of Staphylococcus aureus among staphylococci isolated from swimming pool water by membrane filtration recovery on various selective and differential media is described.
This article examines and quantifies factors affecting the risk of child drowning and near-drowning accidents in residential swimming pools. Two surveys were conducted. One survey provided information on children and pools involved in accidents; the other provided information on children exposed to the risk of drowning and their swimming environment. A logit regression model was used to analyze the survey results. The accident determinants were estimated, and risk factors calculated. The results are analyzed within the context of the child drowning and child development literature. Possible intervention strategies are discussed.
Several selective media were evaluated for the primary isolation and enumeration of Staphylococcus aureus from halogenated indoor swimming pool waters. Standard plate counts of the viable population and total coliform densities were also determined to ascertain their value as indicator systems. All studies were done with membrane filters. The most selective, accurate, and reliable medium was Vogel-Johnson (VJ) medium supplemented with 0.5% pyruvate. This medium recovered two times more typical colonies than VJ medium alone, and subsequent identification of these well-defined black colonies proved that approximately 80% were S. aureus. The S. aureus recoveries correlated well with halogen levels and bather density use also. In contrast, VJ medium alone was 60% selective for S. aureus, and VJ medium supplemented with catalase did not increase either the percent recovery or the selectivity over that of VJ medium alone. Standard plate counts did not correlate with halogen levels, bather density, or total viable colonies. Coliforms were rarely recovered from indoor pool waters and were not considered to be useful indicators of water quality.
A protozoological survey was done to isolate free-living amoebae from swimming pools and physiotherapy tubs in Mexico City. Amoebae were isolated by culture in nonnutritive agar medium combined with Escherichia coli. Identification of the isolates was done by morphology using specialized taxonomic keys and by isoelectric focusing of total proteins and isoenzymes in agarose. Pathogenicity of the isolates was determined in 3-week-old mice by intracerebral and intranasal inoculations. Statistical tools were used to determine the existence of significant differences on the incidence and diversity of the isolates in relation to the two types of water bodies analyzed. Water and environmental temperatures, pH, and chloride concentrations were determined at each sampling site. Twenty-nine amoebic strains from eight genera were isolated. Most frequently found were specimens of the genera (Acanthamoeba (with four pathogenic strains), Vahlkampfia, Hartmannella, and Naegleria. Amoebae were isolated more frequently in spring and summer, and could not be recovered from pools with chloride levels of 5.31 mg/ml or more. This survey demonstrates that chloride concentrations commonly used in recreative pools and therapy tubs are not sufficient to eliminate viable cysts of most free-living amoebae. Significantly higher numbers of isolates were retrieved from the pools than from the tubs.
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The author evaluated conditions necessary for the development of the most common intestinal helminths in swimming pools and emphasizes provisions which prevent their development. The author recommends helminthological examinations only in indicated cases.