TRANSMISSION OF VIRUSES IN PUBLIC SWIMMING POOLS
The evaluation of the possible transmission routes of viral diseases in public swimming pools and their environments demands extension of the hygienic control not only to the swimming water but to the total environments of these facilities. The same clinical syndrome may be caused by several types of viruses and one type of virus may cause different clinical illness. This, together with the uncertainty concerning the size of the minimum human infectious dose of virus and the multiple number of transmission routes for enteric viruses, constitute great problems for the epidemiologists and makes an evaluation of the significance of public swimming pools for the transmission of viral diseases extremely difficult. Different reports refer the isolation of virus from both unchlorinated and even highly chlorinated swimming pool water with more than 0.4 mg/litre of free chlorine residual. Several epidemiologic investigations indicate causal association between the use of public swimming pool facilities and disease caused by human enteric viruses. “Complete abstract not presented.”