How not to get sick on holiday

How good is a nice summer swim while on holiday? Floating through the water and ordering poolside cocktails, getting sick from the poo water.

What, that last one hasn’t happened to you yet?

Well, experts say it will soon enough because pools are a hotbed for infection, filled with other peoples diarrhoea and bacteria. Mmmmmmm.

That’s how you don’t get sick on holiday, BTW. Once, we got an ear infection in a public pool overseas. And ear infections aren’t great on flights, in case you were wondering.

But according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, thousands of people have been the victim of dirty, pooey pool water contaminated with bacteria or parasites from other peoples diarrhea. Say it with us: HELL. NO. That’s worse than an ear infection.

The CDC found that between 2000 and 2014, over 27,000 people got sick from ‘recreational water’ and eight people died, according to Esquire.com.

Most of the disease outbreaks were in hotel pools, spas and hot tubs, but some took place at water parks too. Basically, no realm of public water is safe from diarrhea.

Said diarrhea bacteria is called Cryptosporidium – and was the cause behind 58 per cent of the outbreaks. Which means people who have diarrhea are SWIMMING IN PUBLIC POOLS (ew) and that those public pools aren’t keeping their water clean enough (double ew).

According to the CDC, Cryptosporidium parasite can live for more than a week under standard chlorine levels, which is a week too late for anyone who doesn’t want to ingest poo bacteria and get sick (everyone).

And there’s more!

The CDC also found two other bacteria in public waters: Legionella, which causes Legionnaires’ disease, and Pseudomonas, which gives poor folk like us ear infections and rashes. But both of these were responsible for less outbreaks than Cryptosporidium – so from now on, any public pool is deemed to be pooey.

If you’re now (very rightly) worried about a hotel pool on holiday, you can ask to see their pool inspection score, which will show you how clean the water is.

Oh, and don’t swim when you’re sick, it’s gross.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

Center for Disease Control Cryptosporidium diarrhea hotel pools Legionella Pseudomonas