SWIMMING and COVID-19 🤔
We believe there are three hypotheses that could explain the infection among the swimming teams:
A. The virus may be present in the water of the swimming pool.
B. The virus might be circulating in the swimming camp due to inadequate ventilation...
3. C. The virus could remain stable at the pool as a result of chemical reactions, especially involving chlorine.
A. Regarding the presence of the virus in water which is also chlorinated, the likelihood is nearly zero.
4. B. Regarding the presence of the virus in the swimming camp,
it is difficult to answer in the absence of reliable information on ventilation systems.
This hypothesis seems to us the most probable.
5) The 3rd very interesting hypothesis is based on the studies carried out by @ukhadds
6) We highly recommend his study.
"Differences in airborne stability of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern is impacted by alkalinity of surrogates of respiratory aerosol"
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…
7) The study showed that differences in SARS-CoV-2 aero-stability correlate with alkalinity, not salt concentration. Acidic air increases virus stability, while alkaline conditions rapidly inactivate it, highlighting importance of ventilation in reducing airborne transmission.
8) Finally, there is this older study :
"Swimming pool, respiratory health, and childhood asthma: Should we change our beliefs?"
which showed that chlorinated pools may negatively impact respiratory health, especially in asthmatic and elite swimmers ... onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pp…
9) ...due to exposure to chlorine by-products. Effects on recreational and infant swimmers are less clear, requiring further research to establish causal links between pool attendance and asthma development.
10) Regardless of the contributing factors, these infections among elite swimmers highlight that the virus is still spreading rapidly across the globe.
Thanks for reading and great thanks to @ChristinaVirgil for her questions and shared information.
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