Health
With some Olympic events postponed, Seine River water quality poses concerns
As Paris opened the 2024 Summer Olympic Games along the Seine River, it was easy for many to fall in love with the romantic waterway and forget what lies beneath.
But the steady rain this past Friday was a reminder of how the weather impacts the river’s water quality.
Organizers canceled the practice run for the upcoming triathlon on both Sunday and Monday due to concerns that the heavy rains negatively impacted the water quality, according to multiple reports.
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Officials were still optimistic that warmer temperatures would reduce the bacteria levels so the men’s triathlon could proceed as planned on Tuesday — but the race was ultimately postponed.
“Despite the improvement in the water quality levels in the last hours, the readings at some points of the swim course are above acceptable levels,” the World Triathlon said in a statement on X.
Triathlon athletes dive in the Seine River during a test event for the women’s triathlon for the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, on Aug. 17, 2023. Organizers canceled the practice run for the upcoming triathlon on both Sunday and Monday due to concerns that the heavy rains negatively impacted the water quality. (Getty Images)
Experts from University of Florida (UF) Health, a member of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Medical Network, discussed with Fox News Digital how the Seine River could impact athletes’ health.
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The quality of water may vary depending on the time of day and the number of infectious particles consumed, Kartikeya Cherabuddi, M.D., professor of infectious diseases and global medicine at the University of Florida, told Fox News Digital.
“Taking precautions and being aware of potential symptoms so they can be managed early is important,” he said.
River gets a makeover
For the past 100 years, swimming has been illegal in the Seine River due to poor water quality — with the exception of rare competitions, according to multiple reports.
“The city of Paris has put a great deal of effort into cleaning up the Seine,” Nicole Iovine, M.D., Ph.D., chief epidemiologist and chief quality officer at UF Health, told Fox News Digital.
A general view of the pontoon used by triathlon athletes moored on the River Seine, Paris, on the second day of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in France. Poor water quality in the Seine caused swimming training for the triathlon to be canceled on Sunday. (Getty Images)
“[As in] many old cities, both sewage and storm runoff travel in the same pipe that is destined for water treatment plants,” she said.
“If there are heavy rains, the pipe capacity can be overwhelmed, and the excess can end up in the Seine.”
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To prepare for the Olympics, the city spent $1.5 billion to build an underground storage basin, called “Austerlitz Basin,” along with a renovated sewer system and upgraded treatment plants.
The goal was for the improved system to collect excess rain to prevent wastewater from flowing into the Seine, according to a recent report.
Heavy rains, however, could thwart those efforts.
Daily water testing
About one week before the Olympic Games, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a highly publicized dip on July 17 to show that the waters were safe for the triathlon and marathon events.
Later testing, however, revealed that in some areas, levels of E. coli bacteria were above Europe’s maximum safety limit, which is 900 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters.
One person swimming in the river doesn’t prove that the water is safe, experts pointed out.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is shown swimming in the Seine River on July 17, 2024, in Paris. One person swimming in the river doesn’t prove that the water is safe, experts pointed out. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
“The risk of aspirating river water is much greater when engaged in a highly exertional activity like a competitive race compared to a more leisurely dip in the Seine,” Iovine said.
Eau de Paris, the largest public water company in France, found that the Seine’s water quality for the week of July 17 “reached the compliance thresholds of the European directive at all four points monitored over four days,” according to the city’s website.
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The water is tested early each morning during the Olympics to ensure that the events can proceed as planned, officials say.
The tests typically screen for certain types of bacteria called total coliforms, and generally do not look for other germs, like viruses and parasites, Iovine noted.
E. coli (Escherichia coli) is a group of bacteria in the intestinal tract that helps to digest food and protect the body from harmful germs, but some types can cause illness. (iStock)
Most coliforms, which are found naturally in the environment as well as in human and animal waste, are not harmful — and the ones that can cause illness are usually present in low amounts that don’t pose a threat, he said.
High levels of coliforms, however, can be a marker of excessive fecal matter, which can make people sick, according to experts.
“If the amount of coliforms increases, that could be because significant numbers of pathogenic bacteria, like E. coli, have entered the water, making it potentially unsafe,” Iovine warned.
Potentially harmful contaminants
E. coli (Escherichia coli) is a group of bacteria in the intestinal tract that helps to digest food and protect the body from harmful germs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Some types, however, can cause illness.
“I am concerned that if the level of harmful bacteria is too high, the athletes [could be] at risk for contracting gastrointestinal illness.”
People can get infected by swallowing water that is contaminated with the waste of an infected person.
Common bacterial symptoms include watery or bloody diarrhea, severe stomach cramps, and vomiting that may be associated with a fever, according to the CDC.
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Other bacteria associated with sewage, such as Enterococcus, Salmonella and Campylobacter, can cause a similar array of infections, Iovine warned.
“I am concerned that if the level of harmful bacteria is too high, the athletes [could be] at risk for contracting gastrointestinal illness,” she said.
Skin and eye infections are also possible if people have small nicks or abrasions on their skin before entering the water.
Parasites, like Giardia, amoebas and Cryptosporidium — and viruses, such as norovirus, hepatitis A and hepatitis E — may also be present in human and animal sewage, Iovine added.
A tourist boat navigates on the Seine River under the Alexandre III Bridge, after the first triathlon training session was canceled during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 28, 2024, due to poor water quality. (Getty Images)
Symptoms of viruses and parasites are predominantly stomach-related, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain, but can also include fevers, headaches, and respiratory or urinary issues, Cherabuddi noted.
“Symptoms may start within one to two days, but could present a week or two later,” he added.
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Harmful pathogens carried by rodents can also enter the river with overflow from rainwater, Iovine said.
The urine of rodents, for example, can contain bacteria called Leptospires, which can cause a bacterial disease called leptospirosis.
Triathlon athletes compete and swim in the Seine River during a test event for the women’s triathlon for the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, on Aug. 17, 2023. (Getty Images)
That condition can cause nausea, vomiting, body aches, red eyes, fever and headache, according to Iovine.
“Since these athletes are young and healthy, I would expect them to recover from these infections if they occurred, but it could impact their ability to compete in their events if they are sick,” she said.
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Athletes who are immunocompromised may experience more severe illness than those with healthy immune systems.
Fox News Digital reached out to the International Olympics Committee and Eau de Paris requesting comment.
Over the two and a half years following the 2022 rollout of the 988 national suicide prevention hotline, the rate of suicides among young people in the United States dropped 11 percent below projections, decreasing most sharply in states with a higher volume of answered 988 calls, a new study has found.
The findings, published today as a research letter in JAMA, compared suicide deaths from July 2022 to December 2024 with sophisticated mathematical projections that were based on historical trends. This yielded good news, with 4,372 fewer suicides of adolescents and young adults, ages 15 to 34, than had been projected.
To ensure that the decline was related to the use of the hotline, researchers at Harvard Medical School teased out the trends in states with high and low usage of the hotline. The findings were striking: The 10 states with the largest increases in 988 calls experienced an 18.2 percent reduction in observed suicides compared with expected suicides; in the 10 states with the lowest uptake, the reduction was smaller, 10.6 percent.
The results suggest that the government’s investment in the 988 rollout has translated into “a measurable reduction of deaths,” said Dr. Vishal Patel, a resident physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one of the authors of the study.
“What our study has added,” he said, “is evidence for the deeper benefit of the program, and that is, that at the population level, among young people at least, suicide mortality is lower than it would have been without the program.”
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He added, “The implication of that is that sustained funding for this program matters.”
The United States rolled out the three-digit hotline with bipartisan support in July 2022, replacing a 10-digit hotline number, and augmented it with a $1.5 billion investment in crisis center capacity. Since its inception, the service has fielded more than 25 million contacts, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency has asked Congress for $534.6 million to fund the program for 2027.
Last summer, the Trump administration terminated one element of the hotline, the Press 3 option for L.G.B.T.Q.+ callers. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said that the Press 3 option was being discontinued because it had exhausted its funding from Congress and that the hotline would “focus on serving all help seekers.”
But advocacy groups and policymakers protested the decision, and in testimony before the Senate on Tuesday, the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said his agency was planning to restore the Press 3 option.
Dr. Patel said his group had become curious about measuring the program’s effectiveness after Press 3 was eliminated. While call volume and satisfaction surveys suggested that 988 was succeeding, he said, the harder question was, “Did the creation of this 988 program, the transition from the old hotline to this hotline, actually move the needle on suicide mortality?”
Experts said it was difficult to tease out the beneficial effect of 988 from other things that changed in 2022, the year that the new hotline was created. Around that time, suicide prevention programs were being introduced in schools, in faith communities and on social media, but more important, the pandemic was ending.
“We were finally out of this crazy time, and there was a sense of optimism and hope,” said Jonathan B. Singer, a professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago and a co-author of “Suicide in Schools.” He called the downward trend in youth suicides “encouraging, but it is tempered by the fact that we don’t have a good explanation as to why.”
The authors acknowledged that their findings could not account for the influence of social and economic changes, changes in mental health services or public awareness about services.
But they did make comparisons to exclude other possible explanations. The authors looked for similar effects among American adults over 65, who are less likely to use the hotline. In that group, there was a reduction in suicides that exceeded expectations, but it was smaller, at just 4.5 percent.
To ensure the decline in suicides did not reflect a general improvement in young-adult mortality, the researchers tracked cancer deaths, and found there was no change. They also looked at the rates of suicide among young people in England, where no change had been made to the national crisis line in that time period; they found no reduction in youth suicides there.
Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said she was persuaded that the hotline had contributed to the improvement in suicide rates, in part because it did not appear among English youths or in older Americans.
“To me, that really helps hone in that this might really be the differentiator,” she said. “We are seeing potentially a pretty significant decline in suicides among young people. For public policy, this is strong evidence to double down on that we are doing.”
Emily Hilliard, a senior press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said H.H.S. and SAMHSA are “committed to ensuring that all Americans have access” the 988 line, which she said “clearly provides lifesaving support, helping millions of people every year.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
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A highly contagious digestive virus is surging across the U.S., experts warn.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain.
The virus primarily affects infants and young children, but there have also been outbreaks in elderly populations, such as nursing homes.
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Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in the week ending April 4, out of 2,329 rotavirus tests, 7.3% were positive for the infection. Last year’s highest infection rate was 6.77% as of the week ending April 19.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain. (iStock)
“We’re seeing a lot of rotavirus in the wastewater right now,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, confirmed to Fox News Digital. “Testing for rotavirus is way down, but the percentage of positive tests is up.”
While the virus typically peaks in the spring, it is not currently slowing down, he noted.
Why cases may be rising
Patricia Pinto-Garcia, M.D., a medical editor at GoodRx who is based in California, said there are several possible reasons for the rotavirus spike.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” she told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.”
The rotavirus vaccine series must be completed by the time a child is 8 months old, she noted.
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As a result of the declining vaccinations, herd immunity isn’t protecting vulnerable children, according to Pinto-Garcia. “Children who haven’t finished the vaccine series yet, are too young to get vaccinated, or can’t get the vaccine due to medical illness are more likely to get exposed to the illness because other children aren’t vaccinated,” she said.
Siegel noted that before the vaccine became available, rotavirus resulted in 55,000 to 70,000 in the U.S. per year.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.” (iStock)
“I am concerned that the vaccination rate has been declining over the past seven years and is continuing to decline in the current climate of vaccine skepticism,” he said.
Surveillance methods are also much better than they used to be, Pinto-Garcia noted, which means public health experts are able to pick up and track cases better than ever before.
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“But we see that rotavirus-related healthcare visits are also up, so improved detection is not the only reason we are seeing this spike,” she said.
The COVID pandemic also disrupted the pattern of infections, according to Pinto-Garcia, so it’s “tricky” to compare the current levels against older cycles.
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor,” she added.
Transmission and risk
Dr. Zachary Hoy, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Pediatrix Medical Group based in Nashville, Tennessee, often sees young patients with rotavirus.
“Rotavirus is spread via the fecal-oral route, meaning that a person comes into contact with virus droplets from contact with other children or adults, or from contact with objects such as toys that have been contaminated with the virus from someone who is sick,” he told Fox News Digital. “This can lead to outbreaks, especially at schools where many young children share the same toys.”
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor.”
Rotavirus is associated with many dehydration cases in the hospital due to the degree of diarrhea, according to Hoy.
In some severe cases, the virus can lead to seizures due to electrolyte imbalances from dehydration and loss of electrolytes in the stool.
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“Younger children do not have the reserves that older children and adults have, so they can become more dehydrated quicker and develop more severe electrolyte imbalances, leading to more severe infections,” Hoy said.
“Patients with problems with their immune systems or on medications that can decrease their immune systems can have more severe and prolonged infections, too.”
Treatment and care
Because rotavirus is a viral infection, antibiotics are not effective against it. There is no specific antiviral treatment for the condition, with doctors typically recommending supportive care.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” Hoy told Fox News Digital. “Sometimes it can take up to two to three days of IV fluids to help get patients rehydrated.”
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Blood draws are often necessary to evaluate patients’ electrolyte levels, such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, according to the doctor.
“If these electrolyte levels are significantly low, sometimes patients need special IV solutions or individual electrolyte medications,” he added.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
Dr. Daniel Park, medical director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, noted that most children recover with supportive care, but parents should seek medical attention if a child shows signs of dehydration. Those include decreased urination, lethargy or inability to keep fluids down.
“While rare, rotavirus can be life-threatening in vulnerable populations, especially very young infants or children with underlying medical conditions,” Park told Fox News Digital.
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Prevention strategies
Given the lack of antiviral medications for rotavirus, doctors emphasize the importance of prevention, primarily the vaccine.
There are two rotavirus vaccines – Rotateq (a three-dose series) and Rotarix (a two-dose series). They are given starting at age 2 months as oral drops, not injections, according to Hoy.
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“It’s important to get the rotavirus vaccines on schedule, because these younger infants are at greatest risk if they get rotavirus,” he advised.
Other recommended prevention methods include handwashing with soap and water.
Every day we’re faced with a zillion small choices: Go to sleep early, or watch one more episode of that Netflix drama. Call an old friend to catch up, or cruise social media. Of course, no single action will guarantee a long, healthy life or doom you to an early grave. But those little daily decisions do add up, and over the long term they can make a difference when it comes to both your longevity and your health span, the amount of life spent in relatively good health.
Scroll through this theoretical “day in the life” and select the option that best fits your typical day. Not every situation will apply perfectly, but think about which choice you’d be most likely to make. This isn’t a formal scientific assessment. The goal here isn’t to assign you a “good” or “bad” score, but to help you understand the central factors that shape the way we age and how long we live.
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