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November 12, 2002
Science specialist Ed Yeates reporting
The Mayo
Clinic is asking physicians to be on the lookout for patients
who may have developed a condition called "Hot Tub Lung."
It's a respiratory ailment apparently spawned in the warm,
bubbly waters of spas.
The organism responsible for the ailment is found everywhere.
But if conditions are ripe, the bacteria seems to thrive MORE
in these waters.
The two patients diagnosed with hot tub lung had inhaled bacteria
called mycobacterium avium complex, or MAC for short.
It was aerosolized - most likely transported in the steam
and bubbles of the spa.
"In this group of two patients and in others that have
been reported, if you don't get away from the exposure, you
may not get better," says Mark Elstad, M.D., who works
in the Pulmonolgy Care unit at the University of Utah.
The organism grows readily in the warm, hot temperatures of
hot tubs. If the spa is hotter than 84 degrees, chlorine loses
its potency - it's ability to fully disinfect the water.
"If you have a seriously compromised immune system, you
could conceivably get an infection in which the mycobacteria
would propogate and grow and could invade the lung tissue
and the rest of they body," Elstad says.
But, Elstad cautions, that's a worse case scenario - a rare
event in patients who are already seriously ill.
Most of the time, MAC simply causes a reaction - like an allergy.
The immune system overreacts, producing inflammation in the
lung.
"The more likely scenario is that the organism is inhaled
to the lungs and the body reacts to it in order to clear it,
and it's an immune-type response where the body gets sick
without the bacteria actually growing in the lungs,"
Elstad says.
Dr. Elstad and others are NOT recommending people get rid
of their spas. In fact, all owners have to do to control the
bacteria is keep this equipment clean, change the filter,
and avoid higher temperatures.
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