When most people plan a fun day at the beach, they rarely consider that they could walk away with an infection of E. coli O157:H7; in fact, it has happened numerous times in the past few years. One of the first documented cases of an E. coli outbreak linked to a beach, according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, occurred in 1995 at state park beach near Rockford, Illinois that left 5 children sick. All of the children that became ill swam at the park between June 24 and 25.
Since 1995, there have been several other documented outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 originating from contaminated lake water around the world from Finland to the UK to numerous beaches in the US.
A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a group that tests water quality, found lakes contaminated with potentially harmful microbes in every one of the 50 states and estimate that one in ten beachgoers may get sick from drinking or swimming in contaminated water; this would be approximately 7 million people. The numbers may be somewhat exaggerated, but the risk is still present. To see if a beach near you is safe, see the EPA beach monitoring website.
Recent beach closings in Duluth, Minnesota over an E. coli scare has led to some interesting research by Satoshi Ishii et. al. from the University of Minnesota pointing to the origin of the contamination at the closed beaches. They explain that the original source of E. coli in freshwater is due to fecal contamination from waterfowl; mammals, including humans (think of the little kids at the beach who don't know any better); and from natural sources such as soil and algae. Of all the strains they found, only 0.85% were potentially pathogenic, including some strains specifically identified as originating from Canada geese and humans. Click here to view the study.
There is really no way to prevent an E. coli infection after swimming at a beach if the beach is contaminated except by not swallowing any water and not swimming with open wounds.
So next time you are at the beach, try to keep your children from drinking the water, keep them out of the water if they have an open cut or scratch and keep in mind that if they get sick soon afterwards, they may have developed an E. coli (or similar pathogen such as Campylobacter or Salmonella) infection.
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