Suspected tank water illness may have been an isolated case
The case of a baby girl who doctors believe was made seriously ill due to contaminated tank water could be an isolated one, according to information shared by the Department of Health.
The plight of the infant was revealed by The Royal Gazette yesterday, when her parents urged Government to rigorously enforce regulations that require all household tanks to be cleaned every six years.
The Department said last night it had “interrogated the available healthcare databases” from 2005 to 2013 for reports of the illness suffered by the little girl — a rare lymph node infection caused by the mycobacterium kansasii — and “has not found any reported cases of individuals suffering from this type of illness in Bermuda”.
The child is now recovering from her illness but had to undergo a three-hour operation to have an infected lymph node removed before her first birthday. Her doctors in the US believe the cause was likely to be contaminated water and a test of the tap water at her rented home in Smith’s showed it was unsuitable for drinking.
A Department spokeswoman said in an e-mail: “The Department of Health can confirm that they have tested water from the [child’s] house in question, for all of the normal standard bacterial indicators — coliforms, faecal coliforms and e-coli (which are proxy indicators for the risk of pathogenic organisms) and have also tested follow-up samples.
“Water test results from the premises were communicated to the occupants. However, it is not the policy of the Department to release any individual’s test results to the public without their permission.”
She added: “Mycobacteria can be found in the environment, including water, dust and soil, but mycobacterium kansassii is not routinely tested for in water as it is a specific pathogen.
“The Department of Health offers testing and advice to homeowners regarding their potable water supplies, upon request. DoH routinely monitors and tests potable supplies in Bermuda’s licensed food establishments and various institutions on a regular basis.”
The Department did not respond to questions about whether anyone had ever been prosecuted under the Public Health (Water Storage) Regulations 1951, which require tanks be cleaned every six years.
It also did not answer questions about whether it logs all the results of water testing and investigates further when water is found to be unsuitable for drinking and whether, in such cases, it checks with property owners to ensure they are in compliance with the six-year tank cleaning requirement.
The couple whose daughter became sick have said they do not want any other family to suffer the “ordeal” they went through and hope everyone will check when their tank was last cleaned.
Their child had the infected lymph node removed and cultures taken from the node grew kansasii, which can cause life-threatening symptoms in infants and in people with compromised immune systems.
To get your water tested, you need to pick up a water kit from Environmental Protection in the Metro Building at 6 Hermitage Road, Devonshire, between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday.
After taking a sample of your water, you need to return it to the same office on either a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday between 9am and 4pm.
The fee is $30 and the results should come back in a week. Call 278-5333 for more information.
Scientists have analysed water samples from almost 150 household tanks as part of a study aimed at pinpointing why a certain strain of illness-causing bacteria is predominant in Bermuda.
The results of the study — a joint collaboration between Government, the Caribbean Public Health Agency and overseas scientists — are expected to be published later this year, giving new insight into the efficacy of Bermuda’s rainwater catchment and conservation system and the quality of the Island’s drinking and bathing water.
The team working on the project is trying to determine how salmonella mississippi is transmitted and what contributes to its presence here, since Bermuda is the only location in the Caribbean and North America where it is the dominant strain of salmonella.
But The Royal Gazette understands that microbiologists analysing the samples will be looking at all aspects of the tank water and the pathogens contained within it.
The tank water study was launched early last year, under the auspices of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) and using the Atlantis Mobile Laboratory, which is owned by Université Laval in Quebec.
The Departments of Health and Conservation Services are involved and it is understood that they have visited 140 homes around the Island to question residents about their water use and take samples from tanks.
It was reported last February that the salmonella study was prompted by an earlier Burden of Illness report, which found from the testing of stool samples that salmonella poisoning accounted for almost half of the gastroenteritis cases on the Island.
Some 70 percent of those salmonella cases involved salmonella mississippi, which is not normally found in this region but is very common in Australia’s island state, Tasmania.
The Burden of Illness report said: “This may be related to the way in which rainwater is collected and stored in Bermuda, which is different from other countries in the region. Further research into the source of salmonella mississippi is warranted.”
The latest study seeks to identify the sources, environmental factors and human health behaviours associated with the presence of this intestinal pathogen, according to BIOS, and has also involved gathering samples from soil and wildlife.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said yesterday: “The study sampling started in the summer and ran through to December. The results are being collated now and the analysis and write up is under way by [Université] Laval scientists.
“Sampling was completed last year but no results are available as the analysis is still under way and the write up is incomplete at this time. Once a report is available the conclusions and recommendations will be shared with the public.”
A 2008 study of Bermuda’s freshwater supply published in the Canadian Journal of Microbiology found that “if rainwater collection from roofs is the most efficient means for providing freshwater to Bermudians, it must not be considered a source of high quality drinking water because of the high levels of microbial contamination”.
