Evaluation of the health risks linked to two swimming pools regularly frequented from the city of Yaounde in Cameroon (Central Africa).

The study highlights the presence of pathogenic strains of microorganisms in two swimming pools, highly frequented in the city of Yaounde. Thus, the water samples from these swimming pools have undergone physicochemical and biological treatments using conventional techniques. Three groups of microorganisms (Bacteria, Protozoa, and Helminths) were identified and quantified in these swimming pools with weakly acidic waters (6.79 ± 0.35) with an average temperature of 26.63 ± 0.53 °C and suspended matter ranging from 2 to 150 mg.l-1. The total bacterial load varies between 8 × 103 and 6000 × 103 CFU/100 ml. It consists of mesophilic aerobic heterotrophic bacteria, fecal coliforms, total coliforms, fecal streptococci, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Protozoan cysts and oocysts range from 122 to 505 per liter of water. These values are slightly lower for helminth eggs and larvae (0 to 108 eggs and larvae/l). In both swimming pools, significant correlations were observed between some abiotic and biotic parameters. The waters of the studied swimming pools are subject to fecal pollution. Swimmers would therefore be exposed to biological contaminations, responsible for pathologies. The most common diseases are linked to gastroenteritis (diarrhea), but infections of all kinds may be overgrown (conjunctivitis, ear infections, dermatitis, respiratory infections).