In response to rumors concerning people contracting Meningitis from Stansbury Lake the health department releases this statement:
The Tooele County Health Department and Mountain West Medical Center work closely to track all cases of reportable disease. Both organizations work with the Utah Department of Health and the Utah State Public Health Laboratories to determine if diseases are present in an individual or group. The process of reporting works like this; an individual presents with symptoms and receives a diagnosis from their health care provider. The physician makes a preliminary diagnosis based on what he or she observes and lab work is obtained. That lab sample is further studied to confirm the presence of a specific bacteria or virus. Until something is confirmed through that lab work nothing is reported to the local health department or the state. Until that point everything is speculation and subject to change. Mountain West Medical Center does alert the health department of suspected cases and follows through until the results come back. What the health department knows, as of today, is that there has been no pattern of a single organism causing Meningitis like symptoms in individuals or groups. This is subject to change based on new lab results. If there are any reportable diseases in an individual or group the health department follows, tracks, and will make known to the public any risk of a particular location or activity. There have been far fewer cases than have been reported on social media. We can confirm four lab samples have been obtained over the past month. Those people may have been diagnosed with Meningitis but the lab results do not show a common bacterium or virus that can be linked to one source. Therefore, someone may be diagnosed with Meningitis but it is not reported to the health department until lab results show that there is some type of association and risk to the public. The health department does not test lake water unless there is something confirmed (multiple tests showing the same organism) and at that point the health department would work with the state to do testing. For more information on Meningitis visit: https://www.cdc.gov/meningitis/ For more information on Recreational Water Illness visit: https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/swimmers/rwi.html
https://www.cdc.gov/meningitis/
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