The U.S. National Whitewater Center previously claimed that its sanitation system is adequate after an Ohio teenager died last month due to a brain-eating amoeba infection from the water park. Now, the rafting and kayaking center is changing its tune and has admitted about how its faulty sanitation system encouraged the growth of waterborne illnesses.
Eighteen-year-old Lauren Seitz of Westerville, Ohio died a week after returning from a rafting trip at the Whitewater Center in June, CNN reported. Seitz acquired the Naegleria fowleri, or brain-eating amoeba after the raft she was in overturned in the rapids.
Algae In The Water Bred Brain-Eating Amoeba
According to the Whitewater Center, the algae in its waters stimulated the growth of organic matter in there including the brain-eating amoeba, The News & Observer reported. The algae made the sanitation system inadequate when it comes to removing threats from waterborne illnesses.
Whitewater Center spokesman Eric Osterhus said algae aren't usually deemed as unsafe, but the organisms "create an environment that allows the organisms to grow and avoid the disinfection systems currently in place," the news outlet added. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said recently that the water park's sanitation system don't have enough chlorine, which acts as disinfectant.
The CDC said that the Naegleria fowleri amoeba in Whitewater Center is the highest level they have found in a natural setting. Samples obtained by the CDC found that the center contains 13 times more particles including algae and sediment.
If a recreational water system is really properly chlorinated, it shouldn't contain that many particles in it. Whitewater Center's water is also turbid or cloudy, which makes the park's sanitation system ineffective.
Ignored Complaints
Visitors of Whitewater Center complained about the algae in there and the water's "gross" and "scummy" quality, The News & Observer added. One visitor said the water from the center would not come off the skin easily and requires scrubbing off with a brush to get rid of it.
The Whitewater Center has been closed since June 24. Mecklenburg County officials said they are planning to treat the park's water with chlorine and drain it into the Catawba River, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Dr. Jennifer Cope, an infectious disease physician at the CDC, said the brain-eating amoeba isn't acquired through swallowing contaminated water. It enters the body through water forced up the nose and then travels up the nasal passages to the brain.
The brain-eating amoeba causes primary amebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM, where the brain's tissue gets infected and usually ends in death 18 days after nasal ingestion, the CDC wrote. Symptoms appear five days after nasal exposure and include fever, nausea, vomiting, and headache.
