Stay Healthy While Cooling Down at the Pool

 

 

May 22 – 28, 2023 is Healthy and Safe Swimming Week, and as the summer approaches, it is important to be aware of water-related illnesses that can affect children in your care. Swallowing contaminated water from pools, hot tubs, splash pads, water tables, oceans, lakes, or rivers can lead to diarrhea, the most common illness associated with water outbreaks. Although pool chemicals, like chlorine or bromine, help kill germs in the water and keep it safe for swimming, some diarrheal-causing germs such as Cryptosporidium (Crypto), Giardia, Shigella, Norovirus and E. coli O157, can survive in chlorinated water for varying periods.

Follow these and other healthy swimming steps to help protect you and those you care about from getting sick:

1. Keep children out of water activities if they have diarrhea. Children should not swim or return to childcare until at least 24 hours after diarrhea resolves, without the use of anti-diarrheal medications.
2. Children diagnosed with Crypto should wait to swim for 2 weeks after recovering. Diarrhea must be completely resolved.
3. Remind children not to swallow recreational water.
4. Encourage children to take frequent bathroom breaks. Change diapers away from the water. Remember to follow bathroom breaks and diaper changes with hand washing.
5. Have children rinse off before entering pools, splash pads, or hot tubs and wash or sanitize hands before playing with water tables.

For additional information on Cryptosporidium and Giardia check out the see the attached following factsheets in both English and Spanish:

Cryptosporidium English Spanish

Giardia English Spanish

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to GNR’s Epidemiology Team. As a reminder, all outbreaks of illness are reportable to the health department by law. If you need to report any outbreak of illness at your center, please dial 770-339-4260, pressing 0, and asking to speak with the Epi on call.

Thank you for helping create a safe swimming environment for children in your care this summer.