During June of 2000, several children in Delaware, Ohio, were hospitalized at Grady Memorial General Hospital (GMH) after experiencing watery diarrhea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, and loss of appetite. Dr. McDermott, a new gastroenterologist at GMH, who also had a strong interest in infectious diseases, was asked to examine the children. Their illness lasted from 1 to 44 days, and nearly half of them complained of intermittent bouts of diarrhea. By July 20, over 150 individuals—mainly children and young adults between the ages of 20 and 40—experienced similar signs or symptoms. Dr. McDermott suspected that their illness was due to a microbial infection and queried the Delaware City County Health Department (DCCHD) to investigate this mysterious outbreak further.
Dr. McDermott helped the DCCHD team in surveying individuals hospitalized for intermittent diarrhea. They questioned individuals about recent travel, their sources of drinking water, visits to pools and lakes, swimming behaviors, contact with sick persons or young animals, and day-care attendance. The DCCHD’s investigation reported that the outbreaks were linked to a swimming pool located at a private club in central Ohio. The swimming pool was closed on July 28. A total of 700 clinical cases among residents of Delaware County and three neighboring counties were identified during the entire span of the outbreak that began late June and continued through September. At least five fecal accidents were observed during that time period at the pool. Only one of these accidents was of diarrheal origin. Outbreaks of gastrointestinal distress associated with recreational water activities have increased in recent years, with most being caused by the organism in this case.
Do you know what microorganism might be the cause of the outbreak? How can a single fecal accident contaminate an entire pool and cause so many clinical cases of gastrointestinal distress?
The purpose of the Case Write Ups is to get you acquainted with and internalize the taught concepts, and be able to apply them in order to solve various cases that medical professionals are faced with on an everyday basis. In addition, these activities will serve as an excellent study guide for your exams. Further details are provided in each research activity.
Each research activity is an individual assignment and no collaboration is allowed among students. Further, you will receive full points for each submitted assignment (Turnitin). As such, you will not receive feedback by your instructor, unless you explicitly request it. However, cheating of any form or plagiarism will result in receiving zero for the corresponding assignment and you must address to the best of your abilities what the research task is asking for. If you submit something irrelevant to the assignment you will receive zero. Quality of your report will be assessed by your instructor.
