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Racers' illness no cause for public alarm

Officials say the leptospirosis bacteria that sickened a group of athletes can't be spread through the city water.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published December 16, 2005

TAMPA - It had the ring of a Hollywood movie starring Dustin Hoffman in a biohazard suit.

Three investigators from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came to Hillsborough County on Thursday to collect soil and water samples after a group of athletes contracted a rare illness following an adventure race here in November.

But the drama ends there, say local health officials, who downplayed odds of a wider outbreak of leptospirosis, a bacterial infection. As many as 41 suspected cases have been traced to the national championships for the U.S. Adventure Racing Association at the Hillsborough County Wilderness Park.

"Investigators are not here because there's an ongoing threat," said Dave Atrubin, an epidemiologist with the Hillsborough County Health Department. "We haven't seen any illnesses outside the race participants. It's unlikely to spread."

So far, there have been six confirmed cases of the infection, which if untreated with antibiotics can cause kidney damage, liver failure, or death. Usually, the disease is diagnosed only 50 to 100 times a year in the continental United States.

While the bacteria can be ingested, utility officials said it wasn't possible for it to spread through drinking water.

About 660,000 people get their water from the city of Tampa. The Hillsborough River supplies most of it, collecting runoff that streams from the swamps where the race was held.

"We don't want anyone to be concerned about their water," said Steve Daignault, the city's administrator for public works and utility services. "Our water treatment would render it useless and helpless."

Treatment chemicals also would kill the bacteria if it somehow managed to filter into the aquifer, said Rebekah Doughty, a spokeswoman for Tampa Bay Water.

The bacteria festers in water contaminated with urine of an infected animal. Early blood tests suggest the carriers might have been wild pigs. They roam the Hillsborough County Wilderness Park, which includes Flatwoods, Morris Bridge, Sargeant and Trout Creek parks.

But the parks remained open Thursday because it's unlikely the bacteria pose an ongoing threat, said parks spokesman John Brill.

"The guys running this race were going through swamp in remote parts of the park," Brill said. "If the general public saw the stuff they were running through, they'd run the other way."

The bacteria can be transmitted through broken skin. Many of the athletes in the 24-hour, 100-mile race waded through water for hours after slicing their legs on palmettos.

Sometime after they returned home, participants from all over the country began showing up in emergency rooms complaining of fever, blurred vision, aches, fatigue and burning eyes.

The three CDC investigators were expected to stay at least until Sunday, said Atrubin. He said they would meet with race organizers and take samples, trying to pinpoint where along the 100-mile course infection spread.

"This isn't without precedent," Atrubin said. "There have been cases like this before where this bacteria infected athletes running these type of races. It has never spilled into the general population."

In 2000, about 80 athletes were infected while hiking and swimming in Borneo. In 1998, 110 athletes became sick after swimming in an Illinois lake.

[Last modified December 16, 2005, 00:53:08]