Olympic athletes fall ill after swimming in the Seine: is water quality to blame?

A small number of Olympic athletes are said to have fallen ill shortly after the swimming leg of triathlon events resumed in the Seine in Paris.

While the illnesses have not been officially linked to bacteria or other microbes in the river, high levels of contamination in water bodies can cause health problems ranging from gastrointestinal and skin infections to irritation of the eyes, ears and upper respiratory tract, an infectious disease expert previously explained to MedPage Today.

Belgian Olympic triathlete Claire Michel was admitted to hospital and treated for a E. coli infection Sunday after swimming in the Seine last Wednesday, according to the Associated PressThe team entered Monday’s mixed triathlon.

Just 3 days after the men’s triathlon, the Swiss Olympic team reported that one of the athletes had a stomach infection and would not participate in the mixed relay. AP reported. However, it was “impossible to say” whether the athlete’s infection was linked to the water quality in the Seine, the team said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Swiss athlete’s replacement also fell ill with a stomach infection, but Swiss officials said the athlete had not been in the Seine before, according to NBC’s Today Show.

William Schaffner, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the reported illnesses in athletes who had been in the river. Anecdotes do not prove that there is a “morbidity rate that exceeds what would normally be expected,” he said.

“There are no reports of widespread illness, which is very reassuring,” Schaffner said. “Let’s be cautious about this and not make (any) direct attribution that this was caused by swimming in the Seine.”

Indeed, an individual can get an infection from human or animal sewage that contains viruses or bacteria that can disrupt the intestinal tract and lead to symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever, Schaffner said. Street runoff — a problem with the heavy rains that swept through Paris during the Olympics — could also contain substances such as oil and gasoline residue that could make a person sick if ingested, he said.

“We all know not to swim in polluted water,” he said.

Meanwhile, the organisers of the Olympic event had said that water quality tests carried out on the day of the individual triathlon competitions indicated that bacteria levels were “very good”, the AP.

When MedPage Today Bruce Hirsch, MD, of North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, reported last week that high levels of bacteria had returned to the Seine after a large-scale cleanup, noting the variability of water quality in each river.

Concentrations of E. coli more than 900 colony-forming units per 100 ml of water is considered unhealthy and potentially risky. And warm weather promotes bacterial growth, he pointed out.

All in all, it’s “reassuring that we understand that circumstances around us are changing,” Hirsch said.

Although events in the river were canceled or postponed through Sunday due to concerns about water quality and safety, authorities decided to hold swimming events on Monday based on daily water testing.

Belgian officials, in a statement in Dutch and translated into English, expressed the hope that lessons will be learned for the next triathlon competitions at the Olympic Games. “We are thinking of the guarantee of training days, competition days and the competition format that must be clarified in advance and ensure that there is no uncertainty for the athletes, the entourage and the supporters.”