Swimmers can play a role in keeping pools infection-free

Just as the weather was beginning to heat up, Clark County Parks and Recreation did something surprising: shut down its public pools.

“We were acting out of an abundance of caution,” said Stacy Welling, a county spokeswoman. “We want to make sure our facilities are as safe and healthy as possible.”

Within weeks, the pools were back up and running, just in time for Memorial Day weekend. The situation highlighted the need for constant vigilance regarding the pools.

The county issued a letter apologizing for the closures and provided a list of health and hygiene measures the public should practice to alleviate the need to repeat the closures and cleaning procedures.

The letter reminds the public to shower before and after using the pools and to avoid sharing items such as towels and razors. People should also avoid touching any bumps, rashes, cuts, infected areas or bandages on another person’s skin. The letter also advised people to keep cuts and scrapes clean and cover them with bandages.

The letter added that people with skin infections shouldn’t go in the water at a public pool unless using water-tight bandages.

The problem was first noticed in April, when several of the lifeguards at the Desert Breeze Aquatic Facility, 8275 Spring Mountain Road, reported skin irritation.

“We get those kind of reports occasionally, but this was a little different because we got a few similar ones in a row,” Welling said. “We test several times a day for pool chemistry, chlorine levels, pH levels and the pools’ alkalinity. Everything was within operational parameters.”

Additional testing was ordered, with water samples sent to an outside lab. The tests took five days and revealed the pool was contaminated with staphylococcus epidermidis, a bacterium not usually disease-causing.

That bacterium is usually a risk only for patients with compromised immune systems, and infections from it are generally hospital-acquired.

“We checked with the Centers for Disease Control, and there are no known cases of someone contracting a staph infection from a pool,” said Stephanie Bethel, a public information officer for the Southern Nevada Health District. “The county was just being very cautious, and they were doing the right thing, closing down the pools when they weren’t sure what the risk was.”

The county closed the pool immediately as a precaution and began a disinfection regimen. The superchlorination process involved cleaning the water circulation and water filtration system. An outside company was brought in to disinfect all the surfaces in the pool area, including the deck, bathrooms and showers.

While that was underway, the results from a second test came in, revealing the presence of staphylococcus aureus, another type of bacterium. While not necessarily a disease vector, it is considered a common cause of skin infections, respiratory disease and food poisoning.

All of the county’s pools include automatic chlorination systems that adjust the levels as needed. Desert Breeze also has an additional filtering system that utilizes ultraviolet light.

“We’ve never had to do testing like this before,” Welling said. “We were in regular contact with the health department, and we did another procedure, a hyperchlorination. As that was underway, a report came in of another infection, this one at the West Flamingo Adult Activity Pool.”

When that one also tested positive for problematic bacteria, all of the county’s indoor pools were closed and tested. None of the other pools had problems. As of May 19, all the test results were in, and all pools reopened.

“We follow all the mandated health protocols,” Welling said. “We’re confident everything is fine now.”

To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor, email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.