08 | 8 | 2007 Posted By Pritzker | Ruohonen

Boy Sickened by Water-Borne E. coli

There is a surprising lack of understanding regarding infectious disease. This ignorance can seriously injure and kill people. A 4-year-old boy is home from the hospital after spending the last several weeks in the hospital being treated for kidney failure. Health officials believe the boy contracted E. coli when he swam in the Mississippi River. According to a story on Quad Cities Online, the boy’s mother believes the E. coli contamination in the river was caused by boats dumping sewage tanks upriver. She and other family members “smelled a sewage-like stink” as they swam in the river.

Please let everyone in your life know that human and animal feces in rivers and lakes can cause serious illness and death. Here is a list of things one should not do:

  1. Don’t dump your waste in bodies of water.
  2. Don’t defecate in a body of water.
  3. Don’t have a baby in the water when others are swimming nearby. Even swimming diapers can leak.
  4. Don't swim in a designated swimming area unless you have showered first.
  5. Don’t wash out a diaper in a body of water.
  6. Don’t let your dog swim in a body of water near an area where humans swim, even if your dog “would never poop in the water.”