The McHenry County Health Department on Tuesday night advised people not to swim in McCullom Lake because of the possibility of parasites in the water that cause “swimmer’s itch.”
“We are posting a warning on the beaches,” said Mike Bacon, public health administrator for the county. “The symptoms that have been reported from four calls we had this afternoon are consistent with swimmer’s itch.”
He said an outbreak of the ailment occurs this way: The parasite schistosome, carried by migratory birds, moves from birds to snails. Then the schistosome larvae leave the snails and get into the water.
The larvae “penetrate the skin of swimmers, and at that point of penetration, you get a little red bump, and it becomes itchy over the course of the next two or three days,” Bacon said.
“There really aren’t any serious health effects beyond that, typically,” he said.
Bacon advised those afflicted not to scratch the itch because that makes it worse. Instead, the itch should be soothed with calamine lotion or a cool bath into which half of a small box of baking soda is dissolved, he said.
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The itching should go away in four to six days, he said. But if the rash is severe, sufferers should contact a doctor.
Bacon said an outbreak of the parasites sometimes occurs in a body of water in May and early June and should naturally disappear by the end of June.