Norovirus Outbreak Associated With a Natural Lake Used for Recreation — Oregon, 2014

Discussion

On the basis of symptom profiles, illness incubation and duration periods, and positive stool specimens, norovirus (a human pathogen) was the likely etiology of this outbreak. On the basis of the statistically significant epidemiologic link to swimming in Blue Lake, the lake was likely the outbreak source.* Although, the mechanism by which the lake became contaminated is unknown, the most likely cause, based on the point source outbreak pattern, was a swimmer's vomit or fecal incident in the lake over the weekend, probably on Saturday, July 12. If a swimmer had a vomit or fecal incident in the lake on Saturday, July 12, the illness counts, by day of visit to the lake, suggest that the bubblers might have helped limit transmission to primarily Saturday, July 12 via dilution.^†

During the previous 15 years, Blue Lake has been the source of other acute gastrointestinal illness outbreaks during the summer months. In 1991, Blue Lake was linked to a dual-pathogen outbreak (21 cases of E. coli O157:H7 and 59 cases of Shigella infection). In 2004, norovirus caused an outbreak associated with swimming in Blue Lake; this outbreak affected >100 persons.^[3,4] In addition, in the summer months Blue Lake often closes because of the presence of blue-green algae that can produce toxins harmful to humans and animals.

Because of the small beach area and the sheer numbers of park visitors, the bather load was high the weekend of the outbreak exposure. The effects of high bather load were likely exacerbated by the high temperatures (upwards of 90°F or 32°C), the potentially poor water circulation within the beach area, and the fact that shallow beach areas attract young children, among whom norovirus is the leading cause of medically attended acute gastroenteritis in the United States.^[5,6] Children also can be at higher risk for exposure because they are more likely to ingest water while swimming.^[7] In addition, there is no method to chemically treat the lake, allowing contamination and the potential of transmission to persist.

Because there are no evidence-based remediation steps for untreated recreational water venues as there are for treated recreational water venues (e.g., pools), public health officials found it challenging to come to a clear consensus on when to reopen the lake. There is evidence that noroviruses can survive in water for several months and possibly years.^[8] Consequently, MCHD relied on commonsense strategies (e.g., waiting multiple incubation periods to ensure illness had subsided) and the expertise of health officers to decide when to reopen the lake. Public health agencies could benefit from the development of evidence-based criteria to determine when to reopen untreated recreational water venues associated with outbreaks (e.g., venue-specific water quality regression models).

Preventing and controlling such outbreaks also calls for engaging the swimming public, who represent a key source of recreational water contamination. Blue Lake has policies in place to prevent high-risk situations, including biweekly water testing for fecal contamination, installing bubblers to increase water circulation, and banning children aged <5 years^§ from the beach area to limit vomiting and fecal incidents in the water, policies which existed before the outbreak. However, these strategies alone cannot eliminate the risk of contamination of recreational water, and more proactive (i.e., pre-outbreak) dissemination of messages that promote healthy swimming are needed. Because of the disproportionate reporting of outbreaks associated with treated recreational water venues, CDC has historically focused on developing healthy swimming promotion resources for treated venues.^¶ However, as this outbreak highlights, healthy swimming promotion resources for untreated recreational water venues are also needed. Such resources would need to balance raising awareness of the health benefits of aquatic-based physical activity and outdoor recreation with informing the swimming public of steps that it can take to minimize potential risks of swimming in untreated recreational water.^[9] To optimize the effectiveness of healthy swimming messages specific to untreated recreational water venues, public health experts need to better understand how the swimming public perceives these venues and their associated risk of infection, particularly given the communal nature of swimming. Thus, understanding the public's knowledge, attitudes, and practices surrounding untreated recreational water could be the first step to preventing illness.

*The water, and thus the tested samples, might have no longer been contaminated by norovirus 11 days after Saturday, July 12, or the contamination levels in the samples might have fallen below the level of detection.
^†Based on the hypothesis that a swimmer had a vomit or fecal incident in the lake on Saturday, July 12, and 17 of 18 illnesses occurred in persons who visited the lake Saturday, but only one illness occurred in a person who visited the lake on Sunday.
^§ CDC does not recommend banning children aged <5 years from recreational water venues as a strategy to prevent recreational water–associated illness outbreaks.
^¶ More information is available at https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/resources/index.html.

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2015;64(18):485-490. © 2015  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)