'Most US public swimming pools contain poop bacteria'

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned US citizens that public swimming pool is filled with fecal matter.

The researchers from CDC collected water samples from filters at 160 indoor and outdoor pools around Atlanta, and found traces of feces in nearly 60 percent of them, demonstrated by the presence of E. coli bacteria.

The agency said that the E. coli bacteria enters the pool when swimmers "have a fecal incident" or when they fail to properly clean themselves before entering the pool, the New York Daily News reported.

However, none of the samples had E. coli O157:H7, the strain that is responsible for many cases of foodborne illness.

Other things that were found in the pool were pseudomonas aeruginosa that caused skin rashes and ear infections, and to a much lesser extent cryptosporidium and giardia, which cause diarrhoea.