Washington, U.S.A - As Memorial Day approaches heralding the summer pool season, a new survey on swimmer hygiene conducted by the Water Quality & Health Council (WQHC) finds that although nearly all Americans (93%) say they would never re-use someone else’s bath water, almost seven in 10 (68%) admit they do not always shower before getting in the pool. Failing to shower before swimming adds contaminants to the pool that can lead to unhealthy swimming conditions.

“Swimming is not a substitute for bathing. Too many people unknowingly treat the pool as a communal bathtub,” said Dr. Chris Wiant, chair of the Water Quality & Health Council. “It may seem counter-intuitive, but it’s important to shower before you jump in the pool to help keep swimming healthy for everyone in the pool.”

“The pre-swim shower removes a lot of the sweat, cosmetics and urine that can mix with chlorine to create irritants in pool water,” said Michele Hlavsa, Chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Healthy Swimming Program. “These irritants, not the chlorine itself, cause red eyes when we swim and the strong chemical smell of some pools.”

The April 2012 survey found that one in five respondents admit to peeing in the pool, echoing the results from a WQHC survey conducted three years ago. According to Dr. Wiant, “No matter how easy it is to pee anonymously in the pool; swimmers should avoid doing so and take their children on frequent bathroom breaks. Pool operators should also monitor and maintain proper pool water chemistry, especially pH and chlorine levels, which CDC calls ‘the first defense against germs that can make swimmers sick.’”

The WQHC is again making available this year free pool test strips so swimmers can check pH and chlorine levels using a simple, color-coded test strip. Proper chlorine levels and pH help keep pools healthy by destroying waterborne germs that can cause diarrhea, swimmer’s ear, and skin infections.

Last summer, WQHC mailed over 32,000 free pool test strips to swimmers who requested them on the Healthy Pools website. Data submitted by swimmers across the nation last summer showed that 54% of pools tested had unacceptable chlorine levels and 47% had inappropriate pH levels.

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Uganda: Millions of Americans are expected to participate in the “Cover the Night” activities outlined in the viral video phenomenon, Kony2012. Christian aid group World Vision released a video warning that, while now-infamous warlord Joseph Kony no longer threatens Ugandan communities, invisible killers continue to stalk the nation’s children – killers with far more reach than Kony’s army, even at its worst.

The violence executed by Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was maniacal in its brutality. The LRA targeted innocents, abducting children and forcing them to commit inhumane acts of brutality, often against their own families, before using them as child soldiers in its military campaign. While human toll is hard to calculate, during the early 2000s, an estimated 120 to 150 people died every day as a direct result of the LRA conflict, particularly due to conditions in the squalid displacement camps where many fled to avoid LRA attack.

The LRA left Uganda in 2006, and the millions affected by the war have since been rebuilding their lives after a generation of war. But as they do, poverty-related diseases like malaria, diarrhea and malnutrition continue to kill hundreds of Ugandan children every day. Some 4% of infants in Uganda die in their first year of life; 9% die before the age of five.

“I experienced Kony’s violence myself,” said James Odong, who was abducted by the LRA at the age of 19. “I saw children killed – their lives tragically cut short. Today, hundreds of Uganda’s children were taken by the invisible killers of malaria, malnutrition and diarrhea. These deaths aren’t violent, but each loss is tragic.” Odong now serves as World Vision’s associate director for peace building.

During the conflict, World Vision provided counseling and support to former child soldiers through its Children of War Rehabilitation Program. Outside of Uganda, World Vision offices carried out extensive advocacy campaigns to raise awareness and political support for a peaceful end to the conflict.

Now that peace has returned to Uganda, World Vision’s community development programs – funded by the sponsorships of thousands of children in Uganda – continue to help provide anti-malarial bed nets, clean water systems, rehydration treatment, nutritional education, agricultural training and many more initiatives to combat these silent killers – each and every day.

All of these killers are easily prevented and easily treated with the right resources. Extreme poverty keeps most of these children’s families from accessing the preventative care and treatment they need, but with the support of groups like World Vision and others, many of these families are gaining access to lifesaving resources.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that a Chicago-area company has agreed to stop making its ready-to-eat sandwiches and produce after FDA investigators repeatedly found unsanitary conditions and bacterial contamination in the facility.

The company, Triple A Services, and its owners and operators, Thomas J. Whennen, Scott C. Whennen and David A. Frisco, have agreed to stop producing and distributing the sandwiches and produce as part of a consent decree filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois.

The terms of the decree would also require Triple A to hire a sanitation expert to help establish an effective sanitation program, to comply with FDA regulations and to eliminate Listeria contamination from company facilities.

The government’s complaint, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on December 22, 2011, describes Triple A’s history of operating under unsanitary conditions and Listeria monocytogenes contamination in the processing facility. It also outlines Triple A’s failure to comply with Current Good Manufacturing Practice and seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point regulations.

Listeriosis, the illness caused by Listeria monocytogenes, can be serious and sometimes causes fatal infections in young children, older people, and in those with weakened immune systems. Healthy people may experience short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Listeriosis can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths.

“FDA took these aggressive actions because Triple A Services continued to violate current good manufacturing practice regulations and allow for conditions that could affect the health of consumers,” said Dara Corrigan, the FDA’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs.

No illnesses have been reported to date from Triple A Services’ products. Illnesses or adverse events related to use of these products should be reported to the FDA at https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/medwatch-online.htm.

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Authorities are still struggle to find the source of the infected vegetables while more people are getting sick. German scientists remain baffled over the origin of the particular strain of E. Coli bacteria currently being registered because of its particularly vicious symptoms. Normally, young children and elderly people are most vulnerable to the bacteria but the recent outbreak has hit predominantly young adult females – and the scientists don’t know why.

A new report by Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) for University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf has determined that the bacteria is a completely new and extremely infectious strain of E. Coli with no previously recorded outbreaks. However, there is a 93% convergence between the current European bacteria and the one that caused severe diarrhea in the Central African Republic according to Berlingske Tidende, a Danish Daily.

The research also suggest that the strain is difficult to treat with antibiotics but the team behind the report are still working on tangible ways of effectively treat the victims and stop the spread of the bacteria. Meanwhile, doctors and researchers are forced to conduct basic scientific detective work, which according to the BBC amounts to “simply asking all the surviving victims what they ate and when they ate it, and them comparing notes to find a pattern.”

Seventeen people have died so far, counting 16 Germans and a Swedish woman. Almost 370 new cases were reported Wednesday including two in the US who had returned from a trip to Hamburg, Germany. The northern city seems to be the capital of the outbreak.

German authorities have had to withdraw the claim that infected vegetables came from Spain after the suspected farmers have been cleared. They are now saying it could take months before the outbreak is under control because tracking down the real source will be close to impossible. “We may never know” said Reinhard Burger, president of the Robert Kock Institute to the BBC.

The allegation that the infected vegetables originated in Spain has hit their national export hard and loss of earnings is estimated at more than €200M per week for affected farmers. The Spanish government have stated they will seek compensation for Germany’s wrong accusations.

Meanwhile, Russia has banned the import of all fresh vegetables from the European Union as a result of E. Coli (EHEC) risk – a move which the EU has called “disproportionate.” According to European Commission spokesman Frediric Vincent, the Union will be lodging a protest. The BBC Moscow correspondent Daniel Sandford informs that Russia is the single biggest export market for European farmers which makes the ban detrimental. However, the head of Russia’s consumer protection agency Gennady Onishchenko has criticized the EU for their food safety standards, arguing that their “lauded health legislation” is ineffective.

Financially, a country which have been tainted with suspicion – such as Spain – could face a complete trade collapse. A professor in Psychology at the University of Copenhagen told Berlingske Tidende that “cucumber hysteria” could haunt consumers and sales for a long time – in many cases without real cause for concern.

Cases of infection have been reported in a total of nine European countries but virtually all the sick people either lived or recently travelled in Germany.

Why young women are most vulnerable to the outbreak, which has caused serious infections, diarrhea and affected blood, kidneys and the central nervous system, is still a mystery. One theory was that victims were more likely to choose healthier food options but the inclination of young females to eat salads was soon dismissed as too weak an explanation. Dr Ulf Goebel of the Charity university hospital in Berlin, Germany has argued that the bacterial strain might be genetically more ‘suitable’ for women in the same way other viruses are linked to ethnicity. However, Dr Dylis Morgan from the British Health Protection Agency has added: “It’s very unusual for adults to have Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome [an otherwise unusual complication of E. Coli]” but not for the victims of the recent outbreak.

The number of infected victims has officially passed 1500 across Europe.

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