Rio 2016: can you poison yourself with drinking water?

Summer Olympic Games-2016, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, became the subject of scandalous discussions even before its inception. One need only recall the fears associated with the virus Zika, scandals with doping, political instability in Brazil, high crime rates and poor infrastructure. And recently the debate over the sanitary condition of the city's water resources has resumed.

"Three teaspoons of water"

The world media started talking about the fact that "only three teaspoons" containing Rio's wastewater will be enough to make even completely healthy athletes sick. Therefore, tourists and athletes are not recommended to use running water or swim in it.

But what exactly is the risk, what diseases can you get? Rash and petty sore throat, or exotic tropical diseases?

Recent fears appeared after the Associated Press published a report on the 16-month study of Rio's waterways, which will become the site of the struggle of many olympians - sailors, oarsmen and swimmers. Along with this, seawater has also been studied, as hundreds of thousands of tourists are guaranteed to flock to the idyllic coasts of Rio de Janeiro.

The first danger: adenoviruses

One of the most dangerous regions is the lagoon of Rodrigo de Freitas, where there will be rowing and sailing tests. The sample, taken there in March 2015 in the study, showed that in one liter of water there are 1.74 billion adenoviruses. For comparison: only a thousand to one liter is perceived as an unsafe quantity.

Adenoviruses can be responsible for a variety of infections, including gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, respiratory diseases, cystitis and skin rashes. For the sake of justice, it should be said that in the short term this is a very unpleasant disease, but there are very few cases where a healthy person died from them.

Most diseases can occur within a few days or weeks without treatment. Nevertheless, several studies indicate that in some cases, adenovirus infection can cause prolonged brain inflammation in rats. Most likely, we all encounter adenoviruses many times throughout life, but they are blocked by our immune system, or they cause problems with the intestines or cough.

Deadly pathogens

Unfortunately, there are a number of other pathogens living in sewage that theoretically can cause real harm. These include cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid fever. All of them can be life-threatening, regardless of the state of human health.

Why are coliforms dangerous?

Researchers also tested the Rio waters for the maintenance of coliform bacteria in them. These bacteria are always found in the feces of warm-blooded animals, so you can hope that there are not so many of them in the sewage waters of Rio.

The samples of water taken in June 2016 on the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, in fact, showed an extremely low content of coliform bacteria. In this sea water, scientists found them only from 31 to 85 for every 100 milliliters. According to American standards, 400 fecal coliforms per 100 milliliters of water can be considered a safe amount for bathing. However, during 13 months of testing, this indicator was raised, although the researchers did not specify how much.

The threat of rotavirus

In addition, the report states that the beaches of Rio contain an alarming amount of rotavirus. The waters from Copacabana and Ipanema contained 7.22 million and 32.7 million units per liter, respectively.

Rotaviruses are the most common cause of severe gastrointestinal infections in children. Symptoms of infection can include severe diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort and fever. The World Health Organization in its latest project says that 215,000 children under the age of five died from these viruses in 2013 alone. However, in adults, healthy people, this infection is easy and sometimes even does not cause symptoms.

What really threatens you in the waters of Rio?

Thus, the "three teaspoons of water" that headlines are screaming about can really cause the disease, but perhaps not as scary as the media say. In contrast to the threat of tropical diseases, the real problem of water are adenoviruses, the infection of which causes, although not particularly difficult, but troublesome condition.

If we talk about the level of adenoviruses, the researchers agree that this is a very high percentage. This level of pathogenic virus is unheard of for most developed countries, since they disinfect sewage. Such an amount of adenovirus in the water can cause serious health problems if it accidentally enters the body through the mouth or nose.

In addition, it was noted that foreign tourists and athletes, especially those who live outside the countries of South America, have weaker immunity for pathogens, compared to the inhabitants of Rio, who were surrounded by them from an early age.

Nevertheless, truly dangerous viruses of diseases, such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid and hepatitis A, are not so common. Of course, this does not mean that there is no risk. Nevertheless, the most likely result of getting into your body several sips of water will be a serious indigestion or fever, which is still far from the ideal state, if you are hoping to beat world records.