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What are recreational water illnesses (RWIs)?

Photo: child swimmingRWIs are illnesses that are spread by swallowing, breathing, or having contact with contaminated water from swimming pools, spas, lakes, rivers, or oceans. Recreational water illnesses can cause a wide variety of symptoms, including gastrointestinal, skin, ear, respiratory, eye, neurologic and wound infections. The most commonly reported RWI is diarrhea. Diarrheal illnesses can be caused by germs such as Crypto, short for Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Shigella, norovirus and E. coli O157:H7.

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Content Source: Division of Parasitic Diseases, National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-borne, and Enteric Diseases
Page last modified: May 24, 2007