Originally Posted By: canyoncreek
With a disease that is almost 100% deadly don't you think there should be inspection of all public and private fresh water ponds or some kind of government ban on swimming in untested/untreated ponds once they are above a certain temperature?

We have a county park system near me in MI that is geographically huge and when fully developed will be one of the largest public parks in the country. It includes multiple old gravel pits, the largest which hosts public swimming in raw outdoor pond scum and all kinds of naturally growing algae and amoebas. Millions in donations have poured in to make this a national public land treasure. I can see where one case of this would likely shut down the water based portions of this venue.

How many triathlons in late summer have their swim portion in very nasty weedy and scum filled lakes? I wonder how we can reduce risks here? I can't imagine it is as simple as wearing a nose plug and the risk goes away. As you might recall, when you put eye drops in your eyes you can taste them as the overflow of tears goes into the nose and back of the throat. Lake water, with or without goggles, still is going to enter the nose via the tear duct drainage and the critters are pretty small to think a goggle or nose plug is going to keep them out.


What would you propose to do? Shut down all public swimming? People sometimes get these from using tap water in a "neti pot". Any recreation has risks. You could get cut on a grass blade and get a deadly infection. It's simply too bad we cannot mitigate all risks. Even so, I wouldn't advise swimming in obviously dirty or polluted water, especially if the water is warm.
Warning: Dihydrogen monoxide. Stay away.