plantar warts inside pool possible ?

[Swimmingweed]

since we got a pool, many people that we know including the family would like to try our pool...

the problem is that one of them has or we think has plantar wart... that person did not enter our pool yet... but because it is family, we are hesitant to refuse acess to that person.

my wife told that person to wear shoes if the person wish to swim in our pool.. the answer was : i dont have any plantar wart...which we doubt.

so my question.. we do not want to insult that person or to reject anyone. we would like to allow access to the pool but we dont want any plantar warts in our pool..

can wart virus survive in pool water with normal chlorine concentration?

how would you deal with the situation if you were in the same situation ?

 

[ewkearns]

OK, first, I'm not a doctor....... but "plantar" just means it is on your foot. So, I think you might want to expand this question to all people with a (common) wart that is located anywhere (even beneath the bathing suit). Now the bad news: Warts are caused by HPV, but a different strain from genital warts.

"It is possible to reduce the risk of contracting HPV and developing common warts. Because HPV thrives in moist, warm environments, medical professionals recommend wearing shoes in locker rooms, pool decks and other (slightly grimy) places to avoid picking up the virus. And if you have warts, be careful about sharing your stuff with others. Shared towels, socks and shoes can all carry HPV. "
http://www.livescience.com/45946-are-warts-contagious.html

 

[Swimmingweed]

but what about inside the pool... in the water.. does chlorine provide a good environment for the virus to live..

 

[ewkearns]

Bleach kills HPV. However, I'll have to defer to the more knowledgeable, like Chem Geek, to discuss (1)"necessary minimum concentrations" and (2)"time to kill."

 

[zea3]

Its sounds more like you should insist on flip flops around the pool until the deck is dry. I would bump up the chlorine after they swam for peace of mind. Unless you have very young children or people with immune deficiencies swimming with them they should be ok.

 

[chem geek]

According to this paper, HPV is highly resistant to many common disinfectants especially those just based on alcohol. However, the viruses were killed quickly by hypochlorite though this was a 0.525% solution of sodium hypochlorite giving a 4.86 log reduction in 45 minutes. This is a concentrated bleach solution of around 5500 ppm FC. So the implied CT value for a 3-log reduction would be 5500*45*3/4.86 = 153,000 which is high (i.e. not good), but one would really need to retest at lower concentrations to see the actual kill rate.

I also have data on Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) (genital herpes and cold sores) and as I show in the table in this post, there is a 99.9% kill with an FC/CYA ratio near 10% of much less than 1800 minutes (30 hours). Here again, actual testing using lower chlorine concentrations was not done (testing used 4 ppm FC with no CYA for a 2-log reduction in under 30 minutes).

You can probably assume that the virus will not survive more than a day in a pool, but may not be able to count on chlorine preventing person-to-person transmission of it especially if there is close contact. On the other hand, actually getting the virus may require more than just swimming in water that contains some virus particles. There may not be much shedding of virus from warts in water and intact skin may not get infected by virus landing on it.

It's probably more likely to get the virus transferred from solid surfaces (e.g. walking barefoot) than from being in the water where there is not only chlorine but significant dilution of the virus in water. The Mayo Clinic says that the virus is not highly contagious.