TORONTO – An 11yr Old little girl went on a family vacation, but she unfortunately came away with a disgusting disease!
One 11yr old little girl learned the hard way that there are all kinds of ways that you can contract a litany of disgusting diseases. Simply put, this Austrian girl was on vacation with her family when she contracted gonorrhea simply by bathing in one of the hot springs in Europe. This incident definitely serves as a reminder that these types of cases are not always an automatic indicator of sexual abuse.
This report was published in September in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, and it details the case of this 11yr old little girl who had been diagnosed of this terrifying STD just two weeks after a family vacation to Italy in August 2020.
The girl’s family had spent a little bit of time at a group of hot springs near a crater lake known as Specchio di Venere, or “Mirror of Venus” on Pantelleria Island near the southern coast of Italy.
Two days after they visited the hot spring, the girl developed some severe itching and burning in her private area, and even though this was alleviated with some antifungal cream, after the trip she visited a pediatrician who soon enough diagnosed her with gonorrhea after some intensive testing.
“The child adamantly denied any sexual contact,” the authors wrote in the case study. “The family had been traveling together on holiday when the symptoms started, and there was no evidence or opportunity identified for sexual transmission. It was therefore concluded that she must have acquired the infection from pool water contaminated by gonococcus.”
The doctors treated the child for the infection and fortunately, she ultimately made a full recovery.
The authors were quick to indicate that this is one of the main reasons why authorities shouldn’t automatically assume that sexual abuse has occurred in these types of cases.
“A presumption that a gonococcal infection is diagnostic of sexual abuse can be dire, with children wrongfully removed from their parent’s care, and their caregivers facing false charges of sexual crimes,” the study states. “Our case serves to illustrate that the very uncommon diagnosis of gonorrhea in a child may be the result of the nonsexual transmission of the infection, and that contaminated hot pools are a very rare source of infection that should be considered.”
This study on non-sexual transmission of this STD also indicated that there have been cases of this type in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the United States, and New Zealand, just to name a few. Moreover, there have been several cases where contaminated toilet seats and shared beds were the culprits as well.
Unfortunately, there have been plenty of gonorrhea outbreaks in children’s hospitals as well, with common baths, wash rags, towels, and diapers being the main causes.
When it comes to hot springs, it would appear that the warm acidic water was capable of extending the life span of the bacteria.
“This rare event is likely due to a number of unique factors, including the timing of the child’s bathing in relation to that of an infected visitor, but those using these pools need to be alerted to the possibility of such exposure, including the risk of possible conjunctival infection, on occasion,” the researchers note.