Dozens sick, three hospitalized over feces exposure at water park: CDC

A day of fun in the sun turned into torment for several Midwestern vacationers.

Dozens of people were sickened after playing on a splash pad that was contaminated with fecal matter, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

The incident occurred last June at a wildlife theme park in Kansas, where 27 people fell ill in two separate outbreaks involving fecal-borne pathogens shigella bacteria and norovirus, the CDC said in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Friday.

Shigella bacteria causes an infection called shigellosis, which causes bloody diarrhea, fevers, stomach pain and the physical urge for a bowel movement even when the gut is empty. Similarly, the norovirus contagion is also known to cause abdominal discomfort, diarrhea and vomiting.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment initially alerted the CDC to three people with shigellosis who visited the park on June 18, which led to a further investigation.

The CDC found that the outbreak caused by shigella occurred on June 11, 2021, striking 21 guests all under the age of 15. On June 18, six more visitors up to the age of 38 were infected with norovirus.

Three people with shigellosis were subsequently hospitalized for an average of three days, with no deaths recorded.

The CDC assured that playing in splash pad water is not necessarily associated with illness, but warns guests to be careful not to ingest water from public pools.

Splash pads provide fountains for frolicking in water, and are designed so that standing water does not collect in the main play area, to help reduce the risk of drowning — which presents a caveat to health regulations required by most “aquatic venues.” This means that some splash pads don’t follow the same sanitary rules as other water park attractions.

The Kansas wildlife park’s splash pad, which included jets, tipping buckets and slides, wasn’t equipped with an automated system to maintain the correct chlorine concentration, and allowed for standing water to sit overnight in a tank, rather than being continuously recirculated, filtered and chlorinated. Instead, the reservoir water was filtered and disinfected only just before reuse at during opening the following day, according to the CDC’s report.

Sedgwick County Health Department consulted with CDC to bring the park up to code — so they could reopen the splash pad on July 24.

Although the outbreak was limited to the Kansas wildlife park in this instance, the CDC recommends staying out of the water if sick with diarrhea, showering before getting into the water and taking kids on bathroom breaks as well as checking diapers every hour.

They also said not to swallow the water, poop or pee in the water or sit or stand on the jets as it can rinse feces off and into the water.