Infections are the leading cause of river related injury among paddlers.
Oftentimes these are simply minor ear and sinus infections that are hard to trace to a specific river or source of pollution. Lately however, reports of dangerous Staphylococcus (Staph) infections have come in from paddlers in several parts of the country. These infections were likely linked to specific rivers. In an attempt to find and stop the sources of the pollution causing these serious helath problems, and to better understand the problem, American Whitewater is asking that all paddlers who have been diagnosed with a Staph infection in the last year that they feel could be linked to a river that they paddled send us responses to the following questions:
When did you get a staph infection?
What type of staph was it?
What rivers had you paddled in the 8 weeks prior to the symptoms?
Where do you think you got the infection?
What symptoms did you have?
What treatment was sought/received?
Please feel free to include any additional information.
We will not use, nor do we need your name to respond to this issue. This is likely the first of a series of posts that we will make in response to this potential problem. As we narrow in on the geographic and biological parameters of the potential problem we will educate paddlers on what can be done and what the source of the problem is.
If you have had a potentially river-related staph infection in the last year, please email responses to the above questions to kevin@amwhitewater.org with the title “Staph Infections” in the subject box.
Thanks, and American Whitewater will continue our commitment to improving water quality across the county. As we once said in a public hearing, “We do not eat the fish from this river, we are the fish in this river.”