Officials try to pinpoint cause of intestinal parasites

Experts say the germs are passed through contact with human feces.

FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. -- Health officials in Madison County are gathering recent medical histories, seeking to determine how microscopic intestinal parasites spread from two human cases at the beginning of last week to 30 confirmed over the weekend.

When the first two cases were reported last week, the Fredericktown municipal pool was voluntarily closed as a precaution, as one of the first two children with the reported infections had been swimming there.

Health officials said on Tuesday they do not know at this point how or where the infections spread.

On Aug. 8, two family doctors reported separately that one child had an infection called cryptosporidiosis and the other had giardiasis, according to Teresa Clark. She is a registered nurse who works for the Madison County Health Department in Southeast Missouri.

Both infections are caused by parasites, which are passed through contact with human feces. Symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, headache, low-grade fever, fatigue and loss of appetite.

But, Clark said, one child from the first two cases had been to the municipal pool while the other had not.

She did not have a count on how many of the other people infected had visited the pool, but said no one has been hospitalized from the infections.

"We're not saying the child contracted it from the pool," she said. "We're not saying the pool has it." But, she said, the pool has been voluntarily closed for the rest of the summer season.

She encouraged good hygiene, like washing hands for 30 seconds with warm water and anti-bacterial soap.

Meanwhile, other pools and water parks in the region have stepped up efforts to protect swimmers' health.

At the Farmington Civic Center, the water park has had no ties to the infections, but the pools, which often receive hundreds of visitors daily, are taking safety precautions just the same.

"We just took a proactive stance," said Bill Towler, the center's director of operations.

He said the pools had been "shocked," or subjected to unusually high levels of chlorine when not occupied by swimmers. During normal swimming hours, chlorine levels are returned to normal, he said. Towler said new posters tell parents young children must wear swim diapers, remind parents that diapers cannot be changed on the pool decks and encourage hand washing.

"A lot of it is common sense," Towler said, "but not everybody exhibits common sense."