Gird your loins (and every single orifice), people: Sydney Harbour is awash with aggressive infectious bacteria that will almost definitely kill you, if it hasn’t already.
According to a piece in the SMH today, an aggressive species of marine bacteria “responsible for many more deaths than sharks worldwide each year has been found in Sydney Harbour“.
The article is referring to the Vibrio cholerae bacteria, which does kill 93,500 people annually was detected in 71% of Sydney Harbour sites tested by UTS researchers in 2014, the results of which were published yesterday.
But there are two types of the Vibrio cholerae bacteria: toxigenic, and non-toxigenic. And guess which one was detected in Sydney Harbour? (Hint: it’s *not* the one responsible for tens of thousands of deaths per year.)
Around the world, mass outbreaks of Vibrio bacteria directly correlate with heatwave years and elevated water temperatures – including in Israel, the US, Chile, Peru, Spain and the Baltic Sea – which doesn’t bode well for our health if this ‘global warming phenomenon’ hangs around.
That being said, it’s still not great. The non-toxigenic stuff is responsible for severe skin infections and gastro, and if you want to not get those things, don’t accidentally swallow the water when swimming at Olympic Park, Rhodes or Rozelle Bay in summer (where / when the highest levels were detected).
Researches also found strains of the pathogenic Vibrio vulnificus in 14% of sites. This one’s usually associated with undercooked seafood (and in the United States, accounts for 95% of all seafood-related deaths), but if it gets into an open wound and that wound becomes septic, it carries a 50% mortality rate. Yikes.
Around the world, mass outbreaks of Vibrio bacteria directly correlate with heatwave years and elevated water temperatures – including in Israel, the US, Chile, Peru, Spain and the Baltic Sea – which doesn’t bode well for our health if this ‘global warming phenomenon’ hangs around.
But if you still want to swim in danger times (like when the water is warm, you goddamn rebel), just follow the Department of Health‘s guidelines for avoiding infection: close your mouth, cover any wounds with a watertight dressing, and avoiding getting stabbed / otherwise wounded by sharp objects.
Photo: Getty / Adam Pretty.
