Hotel pool closed after germ detected

The Balearic health ministry will carry out tests on swimming pools across the Balearics to detect the presence of a germ, critosporidium. Ministry sources say it is a germ found frequently in healthy people, particularly British and American, and can cause problems in people with depressed immune systems. The pools will be tested after a young Briton who had been staying at a hotel complex in Calas de Mallorca was diagnosed with gastroenteritis, but on his return to Britain, the presence of criptosporidium was detected. As a result, the pool was closed at the end of last week as a precautionary measure and analyses detected the presence of the germ. Josep Pomar, the director general of health, said that the swimming pool in question complied with all the health controls and that in the Balearics, analyses were not usually made to detect criptosporidium as it is not considered dangerous from a health point of view. In hospitals the test is only made on people with depressed immune systems, such as AIDS sufferers, for whom it could be dangerous. The pool has been disinfected and will probably be re-opened today.