SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK IN PARTS OF BOCA CHICA

The Texas Land Office has recommended an advisory for parts of Boca Chica beach due to high bacteria count coming from floodwaters from the Rio Grande.

The main route of exposure to disease-causing organisms in recreation waters is contact with polluted water while swimming, including accidental ingestion of contaminated water. In waters containing fecal contamination, potentially all the waterborne diseases spread by the fecal-oral route could be contracted by bathers. These illnesses include diseases resulting from the following:

• Bacterial infection (such as cholera, salmonellosis, shigellosis, and gastroenteritis).
• Viral infection (such as infectious hepatitis, gastroenteritis, and intestinal diseases caused by enteroviruses).
• Protozoan infections (such as amoebic dysentery and giardiasis).

Swimming in contaminated water most frequently causes gastroenteritis. Gastroenteritis is the inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, usually caused by a microorganism. Symptoms include chills, nausea, diarrhea, and fever.

Although bathing in contaminated water most often results in contracting diseases that affect the gastrointestinal tract, diseases affecting the eye, ear, skin, and upper respiratory tract can be contracted as well. Infection often results when pathogenic microorganisms come into contact with small breaks and tears in the skin or ruptures in delicate membranes in the ear or nose resulting from the trauma associated with diving into the water.