However, there are certain precautions you can take: There is no sure way to avoid swimmer’s itch entirely unless you avoid water bodies. Younger children’s skin can be more sensitive than the skin of an adult. They usually play by the shore where the presence of schistosomes and their larvae is higher.They are constantly getting wet without thoroughly drying off.Young children who wade and splash in shallow water bodies may be at higher risk because: Who has a higher risk of getting swimmer’s itch? Their larvae are more likely to be found floating near the surface in shallow water along the shores of fresh waters and coastal beaches.Ĭases of swimmer’s itch have been reported across Canada, including in B.C., and the northern United States. Schistosomes are found in many lakes, ponds and coastal waters in British Columbia, usually in the warm summer months. Swimmer’s itch cannot be spread from person to person. It is the reaction to these tiny parasitic larvae under the skin that causes swimmer’s itch. Since the larvae cannot survive in humans they will die almost immediately. If schistosome larvae are present in a body of water and you are in that water (swimming or wading) there is a chance that one or more larvae will burrow under your skin. During their life cycle, schistosome larvae (called cercariae) leave their snail host and swim near the surface of the water, looking for bird and mammal hosts. Schistosomes spend their life cycle as parasites in the bodies of water snails and in the blood stream of aquatic mammals, ducks or other waterfowl. Swimmer's itch is a skin rash caused by an allergic reaction to small worm-like parasites called schistosomes (shiss-toe-soams).
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