Water park closed after 700 become sick

Aug 21 2005

A fun park has been forced to close after more than 700 people, mostly children and teenagers, became sick with a gastrointestinal illness.

An health department spokesman has said that the numbers are growing significantly and the root cause of the illness stems from tanks in the water playground.

Seneca Lake Park's Sprayground, has water jets which shoot up from a hardtop surface, and tests have shown the tank system that feeds the water jets was contaminated with a common waterborne disease called cryptosporidiosis.

The park was then closed.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this highly contagious disease can cause diarrhea, nausea and fever that often lasts for weeks.

As a rule, in healthy individuals, it usually goes away without treatment.

To date there have only been five confirmations that the illnesses from the Sprayground are cryptosporidiosis.

Fortunately the outbreak has not so far claimed any lives and it is reported that many of the affected have already recovered.

The Sprayground, which is in the Finger Lakes region and about 45 miles southwest of Syracuse, would normally expect more than a thousand visitors a day in the month of August.

According to the state parks department, the water is monitored several times a day for chlorine levels and tested monthly for bacteria such as E. coli.

Initially the Sprayground was temporarily shut down after receiving more than 100 reported cases of illness dating to early July.

However following the public notification of the outbreak, the number of reported illnesses rose steeply to 746.