Recreational Water Illness (RWI)
Recreational water illnesses (RWIs) 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 Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Shigella, norovirus and E. coli O157:H7.
In the past two decades, there has been an increase in the number of RWI outbreaks associated with swimming. CDC's Healthy Swimming program offers information and resources to raise awareness about RWIs and how to prevent them by practicing "Healthy Swimming" behaviors.
- Prevention Materials
- General Public
- Aquatics Staff
- Public Health Professionals
- Pediatricians and Healthcare Professionals
- Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.
Contact Us:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Rd
Atlanta, GA 30333 - 800-CDC-INFO
(800-232-4636)
TTY: (888) 232-6348
24 Hours/Every Day - healthywater@cdc.gov