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Date: Fri 19 Aug 2005 From: ProMED-mail Source: Reuters AlertNet, Fri 19 Aug 2005 [edited] _____________________________________________________________ Hundreds of young Chinese swimmers using the same pool have been taken to hospital suffering from high fever, prompting a call for improved sanitation standards nationwide, state media said. _____________________________________________________________ More than 400 children had fallen ill since late July 2005 using the public pool in Hohhot, capital of the northern region of Inner Mongolia. _____________________________________________________________ Hygiene has become a popular issue ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, with campaigns to clean up notoriously dirty public toilets and to halt spitting in the street. It has also gained urgency amid a current outbreak of a pig-borne disease that has killed 39 people in southwest China. _____________________________________________________________ The pool in Hohhot has since been closed, but 73 of the victims were still in hospital, some suffering skin rashes as well as fever. "The Hohhot Health Supervision Office tested water sample from the pool and found ... the total number of bacteria exorbitantly higher than normal levels," the official Xinhua news agency said in an overnight report. _____________________________________________________________ The Ministry of Health had issued an urgent notice to health authorities across the country, asking them to strengthen supervision and inspection of swimming pools, Xinhua said. Parts of China have suffered a prolonged heat wave in recent weeks, with temperatures in the north reaching as high as 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) in June and July. _____________________________________________________________ -- ProMED-mail [Swimming pools are frequently associated with outbreaks of gastrointestinal and febrile illnesses associated variously with pathogenic bacteria, parasitic protozoa, and enteric viruses. In the present instance the agent responsible for the outbreak has not been identified. The high bacterial count may be indicative of a lapse in water treatment procedures rather than an identification of the causative organism. _____________________________________________________________ A reliable source has informed us that parainfluenza virus infection is suspected on the basis of 2 positive parainfluenza virus type 2 IgM tests. Additional tests are under way on children who did not attend the swimming pool to establish the validity of this observation. If the causative agent is a parainfluenza virus -- usually transmitted by a respiratory route -- it is likely that the infection was contracted in the changing facilities rather than in the pool. Further information is awaited. - Mod.CP] ........................cp/pg/mpp