SwimMAC Carolina, one of the largest and most prominent swim teams in the country, is dealing with a parasitic outbreak under investigation by the Mecklenburg County public health department at one of its pools. The SwimMAC facility on the Charlotte Latin School’s campus in the southern part of the city voluntarily closed this week for a second time to clean and disinfect after several cases of Cryptosporidiosis were identified.
Known commonly as “crypto,” Cryptosporidiosis is a diarrheal disease caused by a parasite that can last 1-2 weeks in healthy people. The condition can be more serious in people with weakened immune systems.
While cases continued to appear after the first closure of the pool, the timeline for infection wasn’t clear – so the team closed the pool for a second round of disinfection. There have been no reported new cases since the second shutdown.
“The key to ending transmission is for swimmers to not swim when they have diarrhea,” a memo from county health officials said.
SwimMAC head coach Chuck Batchelor told Queen City News that they were shocking the pool with chlorine and updating procedures to try and reduce the risk of future outbreaks.
“We’re requiring all swimmers to take shower before they enter the pool,” Batchelor said. “Going to eliminate street shoes from coming onto the deck. Because if something is tracked in from the outside, and swimmer steps in the same area and it gets into the pool. There’s no way to know how or what happened, but we’re going to do everything possible so it never happens again.”
The pool, which is not owned by Charlotte Latin School, is currently managed by SwimMAC Carolina. It is one of three pools that SwimMAC currently trains out of, with the other two being on the North side of Charlotte.
A large contingent of SwimMAC swimmers are preparing to race at the Winter Juniors East meet in Greensboro beginning Wednesday. The club recently topped USA Swimming’s Club Excellence rankings for the third-straight year and has been the home base for a number of Olympians in its history, including Ryan Lochte, Cammile Adams, Anthony Ervin, Katie Meili, Kathleen Baker, Jimmy Feigen, Cullen Jones, Micah Lawrence, and Tim Phillips.
Crypto is tough, for sure. This definitely highlights the need to be familiar with MAHC (not saying anything negative about operators here, because the human behavior element is a huge wildcard). US needs to catch up and treat aquatics centers like Europe. That requires everyone to change their behavior and mindset around pools.
This also draws into question the matter of effective circulation. Contaminants will always get in. If the water in any pool doesn’t… Read more »
You are definitely right about European (and I’d add Japanese) facilities: there is widespread buy-in from pool users for all of those items. It’s normalized to such an extent that pool users will actively call out those who haven’t taken a soapy shower before getting in, and lifeguards and management will prevent them from getting in.
It’s going to be really hard to get Americans to change their pool behaviors, but it can happen. If we consider what we all carry on our bodies and shoes as we go through the day, and multiply that by 100-200+ unique users of a daily, I think we could change some minds. I think an complaint pool users would have is being… Read more »
Can we scour the swimmac mentality in the same manner?
boom booms in the pool pool … a poo pool so to speak
Is a weekend immune system one that only works on the weekend or does it only turn off on the weekend?
Ooh that’s nasty
I’m sure the filtration plant already has this, but a UV sanitizer is essential.
Noted in the article are the things that are being done now, but are sadly not done at most pools. These steps should be taken by 100% of all pools (and maybe readers on here would agree if they thought more about what gets in the water every time a swimmer gets in):
Before entering the pool, 100% MUST take a hot, soapy shower, head-to-toe, without wearing a swim suit. Bring an extra CLEAN towel if you’re going to whine about the air being cold.
Absolutely no street shoes on deck. Bring clean deck shoes (slides, Crocs, flip-flops).
Anyone who has had diarrhea in the last… Read more »
Um, the people voted for persecuting Fauci for asking people to wear mask during pandemic, so good luck with getting Americans to do this
How does this work for coaches, officials, timers? Are we all going barefoot???
Meets become special circumstances. Coaches who coach at a facility definitely need to have a separate set of shoes for indoor use only. People have house shoes that never leave their homes: it can happen at pools.
The pool has been closed 3 times for cleaning beginning in early November. Ask MAC families or parents who have sent multiple requests for closure and disinfecting.
The CDC and Model Aquatic Code threshold for sanitizing a pool after a diarrhea episode is uninterrupted 12 hours 45 minutes of water with at least 20 ppm free available chlorine. The clock does not start until that threshold has been reached, and must pause if the water goes below 20 ppm (so readings need to be taken at least hourly). A mistake that is often made is not counting Combined Chlorine in the total.
If the filter media is regenerative (DE, perlite), it must be completely disposed of after the 12:45 (while the clorine level is being brought back to normal). If the media is sand, there must be a thorough backwash. UV must be on the discharge… Read more »
🤮🤢 kinda goes with the parasitic culture there.
Agreed!
Likely a post from a bitter parent who left SwimMAC because their kid is “special” yet didn’t get selected for the group they felt entitled to be a part of – only to find out elsewhere at a other club that the grass wasn’t greener.
It is greener than an Irish meadow.
Didn’t an elsewhere team beat MAC at their own hosted meet?
Yes, they did.
You mean the meet where SwimMAC didn’t swim most of the Winter Jr swimmers and when they did, only in select events and prelims only? You mean that meet?