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Holiday

Question
Dear expert team,
We want to stay at a hotel in the mediterranean arrea. What has to be taken into account conerning the pool? Is there a danger of infection with Pseudomonas? In the Internet it is written about a freshwater pool, can one assume, that it is chlorine in it?
Many thanks for your efforts!
Answer
Dear questioner,

in general one has to assume, that the freshwater pool as well as the mediterranean sea can represent a reservoir for P. aeruginosa and probably other humid germs and that a transmission cannot totally be excluded.
How high the real risk for a transmission respectively an infections is, cannot be quantified concretely. Data about the P. aeruginosa burden of hotel pools in the European offshore are not known to me, that could be cited in correlation to your question; furthermore a valid prognosis about an idividual bathing place respectively pool cannot be made indeed. A special correlation between new infections with P. aeruginosa and holiday trips is however not known, either.
In case of a swimming pool one has to assume, that the water is disinfected via the addition of chlorine, which lowers the germ burden and risk of transmission markedly if it is done correctly. In Germany, the water of a pool has to be free of Pseudomonas, which is also monitored by the health authorities. I can however not make a statement about the laws for the owners of hotel pools in the European offshore respectively the Standards that have to be fulfilled here in general.
Sae water, however, and also the ground at the beach can contain P. aeruginosa, whereby the germ load should be in general quite low, so that a transmission while taking a bath is very unprobable.

Probably the risk of infection when bathing in a well maintained pool respectively in the sea is in overall very low. Personally I would recommend rather bathing in the sea, as the germ load is less dependent of individual factors like number of bathing people, amount of water, water temperature, quality and germ load of the filter system, building of biofilms, regular maintenance and adequate cleaning.

Best regards,
Michael Hogardt
07.06.2015