Bacteria in the Black Sea. Intestinal infection on the Black Sea coast: prevention, causes and treatment. What to do in case of defeat

And there is a lot of this: warnings, etc., etc.

For all countries": - The most optimal vacation option is to go with your child for at least a month. The first 10 days are spent on acclimatization, and the remaining 20 - on vacation itself. If you can’t get out on such a long term, you need to choose a country for your vacation whose climate will not be very different from the one to which your child is accustomed. :-)

Washing your hands before eating and not drinking tap water are banal but vital rules for people going on vacation, especially to hot places. In countries such as Egypt and Turkey, it is not recommended to brush your teeth and wash fruits with tap water - it is better to use bottled water for these purposes.

End of summer. The sea is warm, there are thousands of vacationers, hundreds of thousands of bacteria. In August, even a large amount of salt in the water cannot cope with them. The pools are also heated. Parents are often themselves to blame for the fact that their water becomes dirty. “Parents fill the children’s pool with sea water, put it in the sun to warm it up - and then bacteria and viruses multiply,” explained Elena Makarova, head of the infectious diseases department.

Add unwashed hands after the beach, food spoiled by the heat, close communication - and you get severe poisoning. Entire families get sick on vacation. Children suffer the most. Infectious disease experts say that children are often brought to the hospital directly from the plane. The departments are overcrowded in August.

“The first symptoms of rotavirus are vomiting, which most often becomes indomitable, and parents cannot stop it,” she said. Elena Makarova. - How smaller child, the faster dehydration, hypovolemic shock occurs, and death can occur.”

Last year alone, people all over the world were sick with rotavirus. 137 million children, 592 thousand of them died. In case of severe poisoning, the first step is to replenish fluid loss. Doctors advise feeding the child glucose and saline solutions. You can buy them at the pharmacy. The medicine must be given strictly according to the clock - a teaspoon every five minutes. In case of severe dehydration - only hospitalization.

The excuse “for all countries” amused me....

Türkiye, Egypt and Krasnodar region, these are not all countries.
These are nonsense excuses regarding the lack of sanitary conditions in underdeveloped countries, where no one cares about E. coli.

I say again, in Greece, Croatia, France, Italy there are no such problems.....why do you think...?
There are no less people relaxing there and the weather there is also hot.

Have you ever heard that, for example, Cote d'Azur, or in Crete, all the infectious diseases departments in the hospital are overcrowded....?

The Black Sea is poisoned by a poisonous bacterium. The environmental situation is so catastrophic that hundreds turn to doctors every day local residents and tourists with complaints of intestinal infection.

On the one hand, everything can be explained by natural causes - dangerous algae began to multiply due to the fact that the water temperature reached an anomalous 29 degrees, and, given the location of the sea, the circulation of water in it is extremely slow, in fact it is a closed reservoir. But experts also name other factors: for example, the excessive activity of officials who, without the necessary base, began to squeeze the maximum out of domestic resorts.

Pleasant impressions from summer holidays She doesn’t have much: they all fit into a few photographs. 14-year-old Sonya was relaxing on the Black Sea, but this year it was not too kind to her. After just a couple of swims, she came down with an acute infection. According to the girl, the water was warm and dirty, jellyfish and even bottles were floating in it.

Similar situations happen everywhere. Hospitals in resort towns are packed to capacity: there is only one diagnosis - acute intestinal infection. Many of those who decided to spend their long-awaited vacation on the beaches of Adler, Anapa or Gelendzhik literally find themselves in hospital beds on the second day.

“The situation is simply catastrophic: after swimming in the sea, instead of relaxing, we got an intestinal infection and a trip to the infectious diseases hospital, which turned out to be overcrowded with vacationers. Everyone has the same story: we swam in the Adler Black Sea, where sewage is dumped and is teeming with coli", the petition says.

The situation in resort towns really raises concerns: even health officials do not hide: hospital beds are filled exclusively with vacationers.

On the Sochi beach, as always, there is nowhere to lay a towel. The Velvet season is in full swing, and the flow of tourists does not stop. Even these frightening numbers don’t stop holidaymakers: the water temperature is 27 degrees, and two weeks ago it almost reached 30. For the Black Sea, this is an exorbitant figure. However, doctors report: you can swim in such water. And vacationers are happy to follow these recommendations. It’s just that after swimming like this, tourists often have to exchange beach beds for beds in infectious diseases departments.

Another problem typical of coastal towns is the irresponsibility of local residents and businessmen. Numerous hotels, restaurants, shops and residential buildings are simply not connected to the central sewer system. The authorities, of course, are fighting this, but, nevertheless, not everyone follows their instructions. In many resort areas tourists are literally swimming in their own excrement.

“Very often with my own eyes I see those sewage drains that either flow into the sea with rivers or with stormwater. That is, this is due to the fact that there are a lot of mini-hotels, a lot of houses that are rented out and many of them simply have their own sewerage system. they simply dump it,” says ecologist Vitaly Bezrukov.

And this is a problem that is faced not only in Russia. For example, for the Bulgarians the Black Sea has long turned into a landfill. The bodies of baby dolphins are regularly found on the beaches of the Gold Coast, and no one even tries to disguise the pipes through which waste flows into the sea. In addition, temperatures here are breaking records.

The sea water temperature on the Varna coast is 24 degrees and this does not have a very good effect on the marine ecosystem. Bacteria multiply very easily in water. Besides large companies very often break the law by dumping waste into the seas around the world. In particular, in the Black Sea, near industrial cities.

Now reports of an epidemic of intestinal infection in the Black Sea resorts are coming from almost all countries that have access to it. And if the situation cannot be corrected in the near future, there is a risk of facing ecological disaster regional scale.

Oh sea, sea, who polluted you with dinoflagellate?

I went out to the sea beach - breathed in the fresh breeze... - lost my memory. Or respiratory paralysis may suffice or uncontrollable salivation may begin. The danger of catching such exotic diseases may lie in wait for vacationers on some tropical beaches. Their source is toxic microalgae that produce terrible, sometimes fatal toxins for humans. Dinoflagellates, diatoms... These single-celled organisms make up up to a quarter of all organic matter on the planet, but few people know about them, since they are truly invisible. Just a few years ago, only narrow specialists and coastal residents of the Southern Hemisphere knew about these representatives of the coastal zone. Now this scourge has spread much wider and even moved to our Black Sea and the Baltic. About this, as well as about what else our native resorts can surprise or sadden us, - in the material of the MK correspondent, who talked with a great connoisseur of seaweed, Doctor of Biological Sciences, leading researcher at Moscow State University. Lomonosov, a member of the ancient Moscow Society of Natural Scientists Alexander KAMNEV.

The sea is the sea. It is in better times, when there was no such tourist boom, it required a respectful and careful attitude towards oneself: do not swim in wild beaches, do not swim behind the buoys, do not overheat in the sun. Now, when up to several million vacationers are expected in Anapa during the summer season (with the norm being 150–200 thousand, the waste of which, in principle, can be handled by the existing infrastructure), draw your own conclusions...

Toxic Aleksandrium has settled in the Black Sea

Experts advise treating an overpopulated sea coast in much the same way as we treat a polluted city: to compensate as much as possible for its possible negative impact. In the metropolis, doctors recommend using a shower, walks in parks, going out of town and a balanced diet, and on the coast you should try to walk more, be attentive to what you put in your mouth, even more carefully than before, control the time you spend near the water, be sure to use sunscreen and hats. Using a shower after swimming in sea water is also advisable - in the shower you wash off not only the salt, but also pollutants, which, alas, are now almost everywhere. But maybe there is still an opportunity to choose a cleaner place in advance?


“Recently, a lot of untreated sewage has been entering the Black Sea,” answers Kamnev. - Because best advice: choose places away from towns and cities. It is better to relax on organized beaches, avoid wild, untested ones.

- And if you compare the conditions in Crimea and the North Caucasus?

Still climatic conditions in Crimea are different from North Caucasus: the humidity is different, the water in Crimea is different, more flowing due to the ruggedness of the coastal zone. The Black Sea has several currents: surface and internal. One comes from Turkey, and the other, on the contrary, to Turkey. These currents actively wash our Russian shores.

- Sometimes the water near the shore is brown. How to determine why?

Many banks have a clayey base. And therefore, after a storm or rain, part of this clay, as well as coastal runoff, ends up in the sea, and the water becomes brown. Sometimes, due to flowering in the coastal zone, the water acquires a greenish tint.

But there is a more serious reason that can affect the color of the water. Sometimes it changes color a little when microalgae (diatoms) begin to multiply in it. Some of them release toxins into the air, causing serious illnesses in vacationers - from stomach disorders to amnesia. These mainly live in the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific Oceans, in the seas South-East Asia, in the Mediterranean Sea, but recently they have moved to our shores.


- Can you tell us more about them?

The ancient Indians who lived on the sea coast knew about the presence of a toxic “substance” in water that kills fish and brings health problems to humans. The group of toxic algal exometabolites includes substances with very different chemical structures and mechanisms of action. For example, amnesic toxins, based on domoic acid and its derivatives, are produced by diatoms of the genus Nitzschia. I breathed in such a breeze and got amnesia - a memory disorder.

Some dinoflagellates, such as Gymnodinium breve, are particularly dangerous when in bloom. Brevetoxin, which is a powerful neurotoxin, is released into the atmosphere. In this case, damage occurs when inhaling air in the coastal zone. Brevetoxin in excessive quantities causes drooling, severe runny nose, spontaneous bowel movements and muscle paralysis. Death as a result of receiving a large dose of a toxic substance occurs as a result of respiratory arrest...

- What a horror! Interesting, travel companies Do they warn tourists about this?

Unfortunately, no one here is seriously addressing this issue. There are cases of poisoning, but do people attribute them to algae? Most often they are blamed on some exotic viruses or insects. Many, on the contrary, strive to South coast USA, to Florida. In our country this is considered prestigious, despite the fact that the ocean there is sometimes teeming with dinoflagellates. So-called red tides, when people don't swim or fish, are common there.

- Do microalgae make them red?

Yes. But depending on the species, the tides can be either brown or yellowish. They are typical for South America, Japan, New Zealand, Australia. Fishermen suffer greatly from such tides. Back in the early 90s, one-time losses to individual fishing companies amounted to up to $500 million due to invisible plankton. It has been observed, for example, that threads of the diatoms Chaetoceros convolutes and C. coucavicornis clog the gills of fish, leading to mass mortality in fish farms. Some dinoflagellates, such as Prymnesium parvum, P. patelliferum, Gymnodinium mikimotoi, etc., secrete hemolysins. In fish, they damage the gill epithelium, causing hemolysis (destruction of red blood cells - N.V.). But the saddest thing is that recently we have begun to notice some dinoflagellates off our shores in the Black Sea and the Baltic. Here, apparently, from Mediterranean Sea, the genus Alexandrium has moved to us, which produces paralytic toxins, the main chemical component of which is saxitoxin, a sodium channel blocker. It causes respiratory paralysis (muscle weakness) and in acute cases is fatal.

- What prompted them to move to us?

Most likely, they are carried by currents, but a favorable environment is created due to changes in the temperature regime of our seas, they become warmer. In addition, the level of organic compounds in them increases every year due to sewage discharged directly into the sea. We also cannot exclude the possible appearance of new bacteria in our seas. It’s sad that these microalgae travel through trophic (food) chains into shellfish, and people can become seriously poisoned after tasting seafood in a seaside restaurant. Of course, toxins are not always released by microalgae, but only during certain periods. But it is imperative to study them and classify them. In most countries of the world, especially in those where mariculture is developed, it has existed for quite a long time. the legislative framework on hydrobiont toxins. Maximum concentration limits have been determined, and the content of these substances is constantly monitored. Alas, there is nothing like this in Russia yet. But some types of plankton threaten humans with more than just one-time poisoning. For example, algae of the genus Dinophysis and Prorocentrum, even in small quantities (about tens of thousands of cells per liter), are a tumor promoter, producing okadaic acid. Sometimes it can cause mild digestive upset in a person. A day or two, and it passes, but many do not even suspect a more serious “gift” for a long time. Hepatotoxins from a number of freshwater blue-green algae are also dangerous. In addition to damaging liver tissue, these toxins can cause serious dermatitis.

After all that has been said, the sea somehow no longer attracts. What should those who have already taken trips to the resort do, but are very afraid of catching some kind of toxin there?

There is no need to be afraid. We must live and enjoy life. I myself am going to the same Anapa any day now, where I will swim and scuba dive. In order to protect yourself as much as possible from possible encounters with toxic microalgae, you need to know that most often their number near the coast increases after outbreaks of extreme heat. If possible, it is better to wait a few days after the temperature peaks and only then go into the water. You should also try not to swallow sea water while swimming, and not wash fruits and vegetables in it, so that toxins do not enter the gastrointestinal tract. The second point is compliance with hygiene rules. Many people habitually wash off sea salt in the shower after bathing. This procedure is also necessary to wash away toxins. In addition to taking a shower, I would recommend gargling with drinking water and washing your hands with soap after swimming in the sea. Well, I would like to remind everyone once again that the coastal zone of our seas is not intended to cope with natural needs; there are toilets for this. The cleanliness of our seas largely depends on improving our culture, maintaining prudence and initiatives of city administrations to improve urban wastewater treatment systems. By the way, so far in our coastal zone the situation with diatoms is much better than off the coast of the USA or Japan. Luckily, we don't have red or yellow tides yet. And this is despite the fact that our seas have less antiseptic properties due to their low salinity. If you do not take measures to cleanse them, this advantage can be lost.

It is undesirable to soar from under the water into the sky

Well, thank you, at least you calmed me down a little. Now let me ask you a question as an experienced diver teaching children to scuba dive. At what age can you start scuba diving?

Interesting question. First, I will note that, having decided to go underwater diving, every person should visit an ENT doctor and get confirmation that diving is not contraindicated for him, that is, there are no problems with the ears, in the presence of which it is impossible to dive to depth.

Let's assume that permission has been received from the doctor, then we will determine the age. Eat regulatory frameworks, which are written for different levels of training, and they have their own age categories. If we go down to our everyday level, it is optimal to start working in the sea with scuba gear from the age of 10. Many American schools adhere to this. But my personal belief is that you can start earlier, from 6–8 years old. Only the depth should be reasonable. For example, at 1.5 meters a child will definitely not get injured. But at the same time, high-class specialists must work with it. Another important tip: if you, while relaxing at sea, decide to sign up for a dive with your child, then keep in mind that this should be done at least a day or two before the plane flight - the body will have to recover after scuba diving.

While we are just learning the culture of handling the sea, for example, the Japanese, due to lack of territory, are already starting to build sea ​​cities and gradually go under water. How will they solve the issue of waste disposal? How will they protect their underwater homes from waste from neighboring countries? It is already clear that the future will require all of humanity to reconsider its attitude towards the cradle of life, to radically change its philosophy, to realize that we are all really “cooking” on Earth in a single cauldron called the World Ocean.

We also “vacated” in Adler in July 2016. Saw Olympic Park: without a single tree in 32-degree heat, there are no names at the Olympic Park stops, it’s not even clear where to call a taxi, because... on public transport will not leave; to the Olympics There is no access to the objects, they are located behind a triple fence at 20m. from them; There are no names on the Olympus objects; they can only be recognized and seen closer by taking a paid excursion. The new junctions and bridges are very beautiful, but not well thought out; if you have passed your exit, then it is no longer possible to return back, or you have to drive 14 km. before turning around, or you find yourself in some terrible outskirts, where, in reality, you are afraid for your life. We went to Sochi a couple of times. We were in the “Riviera”: a dried-out park, plants exhausted without watering, palm trees with dried leaves, tents with third-party entertainment (the whole country is getting rid of them), you can’t even see the park behind it, angry service sellers. We went to MoreMall, which, apparently, they forgot to decorate the outside (in Saratov, unexpectedly, it’s more beautiful shopping centers ). All this every second made me think: they want to make money on us, but what in return? Why pay a lot of money? Knowing that we would not come to Sochi again (for that kind of money we could have a better rest), we decided to go to Krasnaya Polyana. It is very beautiful there: mountains, beautiful hotels and cafes that are not affordable (all without visitors). Believe it or not, we were very happy with McDonald's. Only there it was possible to have a snack available, but there were long queues, because... almost all the people are here. For 3600r. (2 adults, 1 child) went up on 3 lifts and decided to see everything at once, because... I don’t want to go to Sochi anymore (we didn’t know yet that we would be in an infectious disease unit). On the lifts there are again angry, dissatisfied staff - and this is for such a price. At the last peak, Rosa Peak, they don’t allow you to take photos for free, there is an organized mandatory, instant photo - everything is only for money. And, of course, such an attitude does not make you want to return to Sochi. Having read reviews about Adler in advance, we did not swim in Adler itself; we knew that the sea there was dirty and people were poisoned by it. We were forced to travel by car (paid parking 50 rubles per hour) to Olympus. park (because according to locals it is cleaner there). We didn’t buy anything on the beach, we didn’t swallow water (the child is 7 years old), in the evening the whole family drank Polysorb as a preventive measure, but it didn’t help. The day before departure, a girl vomited in the hotel where we were staying. The next day, on the way back from Sochi, we stopped in Gelendzhik, in the morning the child became ill, and at night the temperature rose and vomited. Let's go to the infectious diseases department. There, hell continues: they lie in the corridors on 3 floors. Lucky are those who lie on the floor with doctors and the treatment room; doctors and nurses do not reach the other floors. My child and I were admitted at 4 a.m. (I was expecting a doctor’s round at 7 or 8 a.m.), the doctor only came at 1 p.m. for the first time and only after my already raised voices of indignation. The child has a temp. 39 and no one provides help, the doctor sends him to medical attention. sister, and she goes to the doctor - a vicious circle. Doctors can’t keep up; in addition to those who are lying down, new patients are constantly coming. It turns out that locals come and make IVs for money and go home for the night (they also suffer from this infection and have found such a way out for themselves) and spread this infection further. And we, vacationers (in a foreign city, 1000 km from home), are of little interest to them. The hospital only has: rehydron, smecta, lydic mixture, antibiotic (I don’t remember the name), sodium potassium solution for IVs, which causes all children to have some kind of hallucinations. The rest: Polysorb, Enterofulir, Maxilak, Cefikon, Creon, Interosgel, Kagocel - you buy at your own expense at the pharmacy in Tridoroga. Separately, you need to write about the quality of medical services. In our Saratov infectious diseases hospital, everyone is in isolated boxes, the doctor washes his hands with disinfectant upon entering and exiting, and patients will occupy the box once. Here the ward is called boxes, but they are just wards, the patient left, they changed the bed, and put the next one in. In such conditions, the infection cannot be stopped. There is no quartz lamp in the wards, the medical staff works without gloves, and not everyone can even get flexuli there. The staff is not qualified: my son couldn’t get into the vein until he was 5 rubles, and one year old was only 7 rubles. They poked him into a vein (he was already hoarse) but they couldn’t, only with an ultrasound machine they succeeded. It’s not just children who are brought to the ambulance; many adults are brought in in serious condition and unconscious. We found ourselves in a hopeless situation: we couldn’t go back home from Gelendzhik, the child felt a little better, but he couldn’t stand 12 hours in the car, he got motion sickness; waiting a couple of days in Gelendzhik was unheard of, because... There is an epidemic there (an ambulance arrives every 5 minutes, all the tracks are covered in vomit, and the locals carry this infection back home). We were lucky: a plane flies from Gelendzhik to Saratov once a week and we had tickets. We flew away, and the next day my husband drove alone by car for 1300 km - this is a vacation that will be difficult to forget. Our state has driven us into inhuman conditions. In the press, on the Internet, there is no information about rotavirus; everything is hushed up, all negativity is deleted. We won't go to the Black Sea anymore.

Russian tourists, who had a less than successful holiday on the Black Sea coast this year, are trying to draw the attention of the authorities to the sanitary situation in the region. According to them, children and adults pick up E. coli by swimming in the sea or just sitting on the beach. At the same time, the Ministry of Health Krasnodar region and Rospotrebnadzor deny massive outbreaks of infection, writes Newsru.com.

“The situation is simply catastrophic! Having been in Adler with a small child for only 2 days and having swam in the sea, instead of relaxing, we got an intestinal infection and a trip to the infectious diseases hospital on Kirova 50, which turned out to be overcrowded with vacationers, sick children are even lying in the corridors, there are not enough places! Everyone has the same story: they swam in the Adler Black Sea, where sewage is dumped and is infested with E. coli,” writes Norilsk resident Larisa Yangol in an address to Vladimir Putin and Gennady Onishchenko.

According to her, “being with a small child in Adler for only two days and having swam in the sea, instead of resting, we got an intestinal infection and a trip to the infectious diseases hospital, which turned out to be overcrowded with vacationers.” “Sick children are even lying in the corridors, there are not enough places! Everyone has the same story - they swam in Adler's Black Sea, where sewage is dumped and infested with E. coli!<...>And this is in post-Olympic Sochi, where they did everything for the guests of the Olympics, but cannot create conditions for a safe holiday for their children!” - notes the tourist.

At the same time, the regional Ministry of Health and Rospotrebnadzor deny massive outbreaks of infection. The departments claim that no cases of group or outbreak morbidity associated with swimming in the sea, rivers and the use of recreational areas have been registered in the region, Kommersant notes.

 

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