Outbreaks of crypto, a parasitic infection linked to pools, doubled from 2014 to 2016, and 4,800 people visited ERs for pool chemical-associated health issues in 2012.
Beware of contaminated pool water: Outbreaks of a parasitic diarrhea-causing infection linked to pools and water playgrounds doubled in the United States from 2014 to 2016, according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report issued Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Cryptosporidium is a germ that can make people sick with diarrhea for up to three weeks," Michele Hlavsa, chief of the CDC's Healthy Swimming Program, wrote in an email. Nicknamed crypto, this parasite spreads through contact with the feces of an infected person.
