THURSDAY, Aug. 4, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Splash pads — those shallow pools of wet, cooling summertime fun for kids — can also be sources of nasty gastro infections for youngsters who swallow water during their play.
That’s the take-home lesson from a new analysis of outbreaks of two bacterial illnesses, shigellosis and norovirus, that struck kids frolicking in a splash pad at a Kansas wildlife park last summer.
Overall, 21 kids came down with shigellosis (caused by the Shigella bacterium) in an outbreak that started June 11, 2021, and another six cases of norovirus were tied to visits to the wildlife park a week later, according to researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
