JACKSONVILLE, Fla – In this week's What's Going Around there is some good news for a lot of people out there who suffer from allergies and some small things to look out for when you hit the pool.
In Clay County at the CareSpot in Middleburg doctors are treating bronchitis, a viral cold that comes with flu like symptoms. It's self limiting which means you have to let it run its course. Check with your pharmacist for an over the counter medication.
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In Nassau County the CareSpot in Yulee is treating infections from bug bites. So doctors say make sure you don't scratch if you get bitten. Also strep throat is going around. You need to get a prescription if you test positive for Strep.
Doctors at Healing Arts Urgent Care in St Johns County said Allergies are calming down. They said the rain helped clear some of the allergens out of the air. Doctors also said they're getting a lot of calls about listeria since the Blue Bell Ice Cream recall. The doctors said if you have listeria you will know it. You'll be violently sick and need to go to the emergency room. So they don't want people to panic.
A warning to swimmers about a parasite that could be lurking in a pool near you. Cryptosporidium is a chlorine resistant parasite. It's found in human and animal feces and if ingested it could make you sick.
As a matter of fact we kind of had a little bit of an epidemic last year, says Dr. Bryan Stephens with Little Black Bag Medical.
He says last year there were a lot of kids who came down with an illness from Crypto and they got it in the water.
It's very hard to kill. It's not killed by chlorine and typical disinfectant that we use. So the very common source is public pools
It's more common in kids because they're more likely to consume pool water. Once it's swallowed it can cause an illness for up to two weeks. Symptoms can include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, and low grade fevers. Dr. Stephens says parents with sick kids have a responsibility to not spread it.
"Parents take kids with diarrhea infections they clean them up they put them in the pool and that can expose lots of other people and cause illness in lots of other people," says Stephens.
He says you can teach your kids not to drink pool water but the better approach is to just stay home if you're sick. Stephens says people don't always want to do that in the summertime.
"Please don't go out and be around other people if you have diarrhea which is a more common summertime illness stay home, wash your hands, at the very least make sure you're using good hygiene," says Stephens.
Here's some other advice to keep from getting sick and keep others from getting sick. Take a thorough cleansing shower with soap before swimming. Wash your hands after using the toilet or changing diapers. Take children on frequent bathroom breaks or check diapers often. Change diapers in a bathroom, not at poolside, and thoroughly clean diaper-changing area