Why the study?
Is bathing in a public, nature-like swimming pond associated with an outbreak of aseptic meningitis?
Is bathing in a public, nature-like swimming pond associated with an outbreak of aseptic meningitis?
Bathing in a non-chlorinated, nature-like public swimming pond was strongly associated with a community outbreak of echovirus 30 and 13 aseptic meningitis.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Bathing in non-chlorinated ponds may pose meningitis risk during outbreaks; leaves open generalizability and need for prospective confirmation.
From July to October 2001, 215 cases of aseptic meningitis occurred among the inhabitants of the German city of Kassel and neighbouring counties. A matched case-control study identified bathing in a public, nature-like pond during the beginning of the outbreak as a risk factor for disease [matched odds ratio (mOR) 44.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.9-515.6]. Among bathers, patients with meningitis spent more time in the water (mOR 18.8, 95% CI 2.0-174.1) and swallowed water more frequently (mOR = 7.3, 95% CI 0.7-81.8). Of 30 cerebrospinal fluid samples tested, echovirus 30 was cultured from 16, and echovirus 13 from seven. An echovirus 30 sequence obtained from one pond water sample showed a 99% nucleotide and 100% amino-acid homology with patient isolates. This outbreak demonstrates the potential of nature-like swimming ponds to cause widespread community infection with substantial public health impact.
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Hauri et al. (2004) studied this question.
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