Apartment pool tests positive for crypto

A swimming pool at a Lawrence apartment complex is undergoing hyperchlorination to kill the cryptosporidium parasite.

One of three samples taken in late August by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested positive for cryptosporidium in the pool at Colony Woods Apartments, 1301 W. 24th St., Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department officials said Wednesday.

However, none of the 89 confirmed cases of the illness in Lawrence was linked to the Colony Woods pool, Health Department director Kay Kent said.

The hyperchlorination process at the pool began Wednesday afternoon. The process is being conducted now as a precautionary measure, Kent said.

Samples from four other pools in the city — the Lawrence indoor and outdoor aquatic centers, and the pools at Lawrence Athletic Club and Kansas University’s Robinson Center — did not show cryptosporidium.

The athletic club and Colony Woods pools were the only ones that had not been hyperchlorinated since the cryptosporidium outbreak in Lawrence. The CDC wanted to test the hyperchlorinated pools as well as two other community pools, Kent said.

The manager at Colony Woods wasn’t available for comment. The apartment pool is indoors.

There have been no new cases of cryptosporidiosis since Oct. 2, Kent said. Wednesday, however, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced that three cases had been confirmed in Riley County, bringing the total number of cases in northeast Kansas to 141.

Cryptosporidium causes diarrhea-like symptoms. The Health Department continues to urge swimmers not to swim when ill with diarrhea or two weeks after having diarrhea.