Taking the kids swimming infected a family of six - have you paid attention to pool hygiene details?

Summer is the season for playing in the water, but if you don't take care to protect yourself while playing in the water, you could get sick!

A 5-year-old child in Wuhan came back from swimming and got infected with pink eye. And because of cross-infection, all 6 people in the family got sick!

Child catches eye disease from swimming

All 6 family members infected

Mr. Zhao's 5-year-old son Xiangxiang went with his grandparents to swim at the swimming pool in their residential compound last week. After getting up the next morning, Xiangxiang kept rubbing his eyes with his hands nonstop.

Grandma noticed something was wrong and bought eye drops. After using the eye drops, Xiangxiang's condition not only did not improve, but his eyes became red and swollen. What's more, not only did the child not get better, but the grandparents also developed red eye symptoms one after another.

To avoid cross-infection, Mr. Zhao sent Xiangxiang to his maternal grandparents' home overnight. Unexpectedly, the maternal grandparents were infected one after another, and he and his wife also developedphotophobia, stinging pain, red eyes and other symptoms.Realizing the situation was serious, Mr. Zhao then took the whole family to the hospital for treatment.

Doctor: High incidence in summer, swimming pools are a major transmission hotspot

After careful examination by the hospital doctors, it was confirmed that Mr. Zhao's entire family had contracted acute conjunctivitis, commonly known as "pink eye."

The doctor explained that "pink eye" is highly contagious and has a concentrated high incidence every summer. Swimming pools are high-risk places for the transmission of "pink eye." Andchildren, due to their weaker resistance, are more susceptible to the disease.

Therefore, when swimming in the water, you should pay even more attention to protecting yourself: wear well-sealed swimming goggles, avoid direct contact between the eyes and the pool water, and it is best to apply one or two drops of antibiotics or eye drops before and after swimming.

To stay away from "pink eye," prevention is key. Maintain good personal hygiene habits, and thoroughly wash your hands before and after touching your eyes. Do not share towels or personal hygiene items with others, and do not touch washbasins, eye makeup, medicines, handkerchiefs or medical instruments used in treatment that have been used by patients.

During an epidemic period, try to go less often to crowded public places. Also, if you get "pink eye," don't panic too much, and don't act as your own doctor by self-medicating based on your past experience or the experience of people around you, as this may delay the timing of treatment.

Once infected, "pink eye" patients should pay special attention:because there is more eye discharge when sick, you cannot rely solely on medication for treatment; careful care of the eyes and keeping them clean are also very important.Before being cured, do not return to kindergarten, school or the workplace, avoid large public places, and strictly refrain from swimming in public pools to prevent secondary infection and cross-infection.

The hidden "disease-causing crises" in swimming pools

In addition to "pink eye," quite a few "disease-causing crises" actually lurk in swimming pools.

Eye diseases

In addition to acute conjunctivitis, if too much bleaching powder is used in the swimming pool, it can also harm the eyes; the irritating effect of bleaching powder can also easily cause symptoms of red eyes.

Ear inflammation

When swimming, water can easily get into the ears. Dirty water staying in the ears can cause ear blockage, discharge of pus and so on, triggering inflammation of the external auditory canal and middle ear, such as suppurative otitis media, acute otitis media, acute external otitis and so on, and in severe cases can even cause perforation of the eardrum.

Digestive tract diseases

There are also some digestive tract infectious diseases that are "caught through the mouth" and are a health hazard of substandard swimming pools, because people inevitably choke on water while swimming; bacteria such as bacillary dysentery and infectious diarrhea enter the human mouth and stomach along with the water, creating a risk of illness.

Skin diseases

The public should pay attention to preventing skin diseases when swimming, such as impetigo caused by bacterial infection, which is contagious upon contact once it ulcerates; superficial fungal infections of the skin, including jock itch, athlete's foot, onychomycosis and so on, are also very easily transmitted through slippers and towels; scabies and molluscum contagiosum are very easily transmitted in baths and during sauna massage. In addition, if swimming outdoors, although it may feel more ventilated, it is easy to get solar dermatitis from sun exposure.

In view of the various hidden risks in swimming pools,

when choosing a place to swim,

everyone must pay extra attention.

Four tips to check swimming pool hygiene

First,swim at "off-peak" times.Generally speaking, swimming venues are divided into morning, afternoon and evening sessions. The best water quality is of course in the morning session, which not only has fewer swimmers and good water quality, but is also cheaper; the afternoon and evening sessions are generally peak times for visitors, and swimming in a "crowded pot" is not only unpleasant, but because the pool is overloaded, it also causes the water quality to decline and hygiene is hard to guarantee.

Second, after entering,remember to look at the "three certificates and one report,"namely the hygiene license, the hygiene grade certificate, the practitioner health certificate and the day's water quality self-inspection report. The water temperature in the public notice board may only matter for whether swimming feels comfortable, but the "residual chlorine" value should be between 0.3 and 0.5, and the "pH value" should be between 6.8 and 8; of course, more precisely, a pH value between 7.2 and 8 is better. In addition, try to choose swimming venues with a high hygiene grade, such as grade A.

Third, after changing into your swimsuit and coming out, remember to check whether the swimming venue hasa mandatory foot-soaking disinfection pool and a mandatory shower water curtain,and be sure to enter the pool through the disinfection channel formed by these two.

Fourth, when you reach the poolside,"look and smell.""Look" means checking whether the pool water is so clear you can see the bottom; generally it is required that the lane markings at a water depth of 1 meter be visible to the naked eye, and also check whether there are floating objects. "Smell" means holding the water up to your nose; good pool water has only a light smell of bleach. If it feels pungent, then the residual chlorine level and ammonia value may be high, which can easily irritate and damage the skin and human mucosal tissue. If swimmers are especially sensitive to water quality, health supervision personnel suggest buying a swimming pool residual chlorine tester yourself, so you can conveniently complete a water quality self-check at the poolside.

Pay attention to personal hygiene

1. When going swimming, you should bring your own personal items such as towels, slippers and bath towels, and try not to use the public items provided by the swimming venue.

2. Before swimming, take a shower to rinse off the sweat on your body, so that urea and other substances in sweat do not pollute the pool water, and enter the pool through the foot-soaking disinfection pool.

3. Before entering the pool, do some appropriate activity, and try not to sit on the ground by the pool, especially for girls, as sitting on it casually can easily cause fungal infections.

4. During swimming, it is best to wear goggles and earplugs, and do not swim for too long.

5. After swimming, you should also promptly rinse your mouth and bathe, and it is best to wipe the skin with some body wash and then rinse it off to prevent skin diseases.

Source: Chutian Metropolis Daily - Kan Chutian, Jiangsu CDC, Guangzhou Daily

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