Health scare of the week

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that cryptosporidium, a fecal parasite that can infest swimming pools and water playgrounds, is on the rise. The parasite—more commonly known as crypto—causes cryptosporidiosis, which can give healthy adults watery diarrhea for up to three weeks. Children, pregnant women and others with compromised immune systems can suffer even worse effects. The CDC says the number of crypto cases increased by an average of 12.8 percent a year from 2009 to 2017, with 7,465 people in that period falling ill. More than a third of cases were from “recreational water” facilities such as swimming pools and water parks; the parasite can survive for more than a week in well-chlorinated water. To halt crypto’s spread, the CDC recommends that children shouldn’t go into the water within two weeks of having diarrhea. “We want to keep crypto out of the pool in the first place,” study co-author Michele Hlavsa tells USA Today. “The way we do that is not to swim or let our kid swim when we’re sick with diarrhea.”

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