The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning for the public against swimming with diarrhea this summer and the visual they used to give that warning is making quite a splash on Twitter. The agency tweeted a warning note along with a cartoon GIF of a girl going down a slide leaving a brown steak behind and wrote, “one person with diarrhea can contaminate the entire pool.”
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The CDC also added a link on its guidance on swimming and diarrhea, but it seems like people only focused on the gif rather than the message. The comments on the tweet appeared to be more concerned with what was behind the colorful graphic. Although many were grossed out, others pointed out taxpayer dollars may have funded the work behind this.
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If you get past the sight of a cartoon, here is the guideline the agency issued :
- Stay out of the water if you are sick with diarrhea. If you have been diagnosed with cryptosporidium, don’t go back in the water until two weeks after diarrhea has completely stopped.
- Use test strips to make sure the water has proper free chlorine (amount of chlorine available to kill germs) or bromine level and pH.
- Shower before you get in the water.
- Rinsing off in the shower for just 1 minute removes most of the dirt or anything else on your body that uses up chlorine or bromine needed to kill or inactivate germs.
- Don’t poop in the water.
- Don’t swallow the water.
- Take kids on bathroom breaks and check diapers every hour.
Here are some Twitter reactions and memes :
Although sharing the note alongside GIF was certainly unique but as usual, Twitter had thoughts on the gif and CDC’s portrayal of poolside.
CDC is the national public health agency of the United States. It comes under the Department of Health and Human Services and is a United States federal agency. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
