Environment
In swimming pools and thermal baths, water is disinfected with chlorine. Under normal chlorine concentrations, most bacteria, fungi or viruses are inactivated within a few seconds or minutes.
On the floor surrounding the pool, the situation is different. There, thousands of microscopic dead skin flakes can be present, a percentage of them being contaminated with dermatophytes. Dermatophytes plus humidity create a perfect environment for the skin of the feet to be infected. Dermatophytes are very infectious and one can easily get them by walking barefoot around the pool or the shower area.
Actually, in pools, infections of the feet such as athlete’s foot or nail fungus and ringworm are very common (20% of the population in Europe!).
Consequences
On humid surfaces, on the floor, dermatophytes thrive, and are ready to attach to the skin of the feet: itching, stinging, and burning on the toes, on the soles of the feet – your feet are infected.
Advice for Visitors
Before you enter the pool area, ask the manager if the place is disinfected every day with a product specifically designed to inactivate dermatophytes (the spores of dermatophytes are more resistant than the typical fungus). Ask also where you can find a foot disinfectant. Check how to use it and then apply it on your feet before you leave.
Advice for Managers
Tell your visitors about the available options to protect them. Offer them the best available technologies: NOSO for eliminating in 30 seconds community acquired bacteria (including C. difficile) and fungi from the floor and surfaces; AVI to disinfect the skin of the feet in 15 seconds so that dermatophytes do not enter the swimming pool area. Abioniv can help you establish a a program to control the critical points in your Pool, by defining the risks and the products to be used : where, how, how often.
How it works
Remember: Disinfectants should work in a matter of seconds, and need to be validated for the kind of risk that exist around a pool.
AVI and NOSO are professional products that work in just seconds. Before and after swimming/ relaxing, users of the pool surroundings can disinfect their feet with AVI. NOSO can be easily spread out on the floor/surfaces by the cleaning personnel.