Heading outdoors on Okinawa? Beware the bacteria floating in the water

[unhappycamper]

Heading outdoors on Okinawa? Beware the bacteria floating in the water
By Cindy Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, June 5, 2008

CAMP LESTER, Okinawa — With weather warming up and more people out exploring the untamed parts of Okinawa, there’s a microscopic critter they need to beware of.

Leptospirosis can be found in fresh water that has been contaminated by the urine of infected animals, such as rodents, according to Lt. Troy Henderson, the environmental health officer at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa. People may also be infected through food or soil that has been contaminated.

Henderson said the bacterium can enter the body through broken skin, the eyes, nose or throat.

Domestic as well as wild animals can carry the bacteria, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web site. Infected animals may or may not show symptoms of the disease, according to the CDC.

Leptospirosis also is listed as a potential health hazard in South Korea, according to the CDC’s Web site.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55307