Summer Symptoms: Stomach bug passed easily in the swimming pool

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - A lot of the symptoms of the stomach bug can be passed easily and picked up easily in the swimming pool.

With complaints of GI symptoms going around in the Tri-State, infection control specialists with TriHealth said people might want to know a few things before they dive-in to their local pool.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for some but with perfect pool weather can come perfect pool infections.

Dr. Stephen Blatt, infectious disease physician, said, "There are bacteria like shigella that can get in swimming pools. There are parasites such as cryptosporidium and there are various kinds of intestinal viruses that can spread through swimming pools."

Dr. Blatt said most of those cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, "Diarrhea is the hallmark of those organisms that are spread through water."

He said people shouldn't swim if they feel any of those symptoms to protect others and don't count on chlorine to cure them.

"One of the problems is that when it's really hot and sticky, like it has been for the last few days, is that the chlorine leaches out of the swimming pools fairly quickly," said Blatt.

When people get out of the pool there were a couple of things they could do to protect themselves, one of them simply to wash their hands. Even though hands were wet in the swimming pool, people may have picked up some things and often times they will have bacteria on their own hands and then touch their face and that's how bacteria can be transmitted into the body.

People should also try not to drink the water in a pool.

Most of the symptoms from the illnesses hit two to five days after people have been infected. Dehydration is the big risk. Most will go away within a week but some with compromised immunity can have something such as cryptosporidium for up to a few months.