[Bathing water related diseases: the Carinthian Sentinel Project as the source of epidemiological data]

The federal country of Carinthia is known for its lakes and ponds, which are extensively used for bathing. The water quality is monitored regularly in accordance to the EC-Directive 76/160/EC and especially to the more rigorous Austrian Standard M6230. Since redevelopment measures of the lakes have been nearly finished the water quality found has improved essentially. In spite of these monitored data no effective correlation to data from the concerning ambulant sector of medical care could be established. The Carinthian Sentinel Practice Network started in summer 1994 to retrieve informations about occurrence and frequency of bathing related illness of children up to 16 years old. The 26 participating primary health care and pediatric physicians, having their own independent practices spread all over the country, reported the specific doctor-patient-contracts to the coordinating base. Criteria for inclusion in the medical report were headache, sore throat, otalgia, stomach-ache, nausea, emesis, diarrhoea, fever, rhinitis, cough, cold, moreover conjunctivitis, skin rash and specific dermatitis. In addition physicians reported where, how long and how often the children had been bathing and how long they had been free of symptoms afterwards. Each case was reported to the coordinating base including a presumed diagnosis. Statistic evaluation showed that bathing related illness may be divided into three main groups according to symptom frequency. The frequency of otalgia (32.4%) was significantly higher than any other symptom asked for. Two groups of symptoms correlate with each other: on one hand rhinitis, conjunctivitis, cough and sore throat (36.5%) and on the other hand nausea, emesis, diarrhoea and fever (41.9%). These data underline conclusions drawn by other authors but are not representative enough to correlate to data from water monitoring. First results suggest that conclusions for public health authorities can be drawn from this additional information about the state of the lakes and ponds-providing a sufficient number of data is reported.