Poop-Borne Virus Afflicting Philadelphia Children

NBC10 reports that Philadelphia is seeing an outbreak of hand, foot, and mouth disease, which is more gross than dangerous, but still kind of a pain for parents to have to deal with. Symptoms include “fever, headache, loss of appetite and painful blisters” like the kind seen on the Wikipedia picture at right.

What’s interesting about the outbreak is that it proves how ubiquitous poop is in our everyday lives. Wait, did we say interesting? We meant horrifying. But anyway:

Doctors say children spread it in fountains, pools daycares, playgrounds and at home. They also say it’s extremely contagious among toddlers who haven’t been exposed to the virus before.

“It’s ubiquitous,” said Dr. Wenonah Nelson, a pediatrician at Bryn Mawr Hospital. “It spreads all over the place. It’s spread by respiratory droplet and probably spread by fecal route. So we ask people to be careful about hand wiping after diaper changes.”

“Probably spread by fecal route” is euphemistic doctor-speak for “POOP IS EVERYWHERE!” Especially during the summer. Remember this bit of information from March:

CDC researchers collected water samples from filters at 160 public pools, booth indoor and outdoor, located in the metro-Atlanta area. They found “poop” in nearly 60 percent of the pools, with tests revealing 58 percent of the water samples were positive for the bacteria Escherichia coli, or E. coli.

In other words, the entire world is like Caddyshack (NSFW), every day.