Several online posts alleging that people have become extremely ill after swimming at Birds Hill Park have gone viral in recent days. The province says there are high algae bloom counts at the beach, but it has not been made aware of several illnesses as the posts claim.

"It’s worth noting that if there were any significant concerns about the water, the beaches would be closed to swimming."

Several versions of the same post started making the rounds on Winnipeggers social media accounts Sunday. The post warns people that an adult and child had been swimming at Birds Hill recently and then the child woke up in the middle of the night sick with vomiting several times, along with a rash and stomach pain. The post claims that after taking the child to the Children's ER at HSC, the staff there said hundreds of similar cases related to Birds Hill had been through the ER.

A spokesperson with the province says that they have not been notified of such cases. "It’s worth noting that if there were any significant concerns about the water, the beaches would be closed to swimming," the spokesperson says.

There have been elevated algae counts that exceed amounts for recreational guidelines since mid-July. The provincial spokesperson says a  sign has been up at the entrances of both the East and West Beach, along with two signs at the Central Beach and one on each mobility mat, since that time. The signs "(remind) visitors that if large amounts of green scum are visible in the water people should avoid swimming or (having) another contact with the water."

A Winnipeg mom whose child got sick in August after swimming there says she never saw any signage.

 

Lyndsay Goldstein's family went camping at Birds Hill for a couple of weeks beginning on the August long weekend. They didn't actually go swimming until August 7, and her son became sick later that evening. The family had been looking for signs to see where the family dog could sit with her husband while her two children swam.

"We parked at the East Beach and we just walked through the grass. We didn't walk along the beach, we walked through the grass and then cut through to Central Beach and we didn't see any signs or anything. Better signage might be a good idea."

 

Goldstein's son vomited several times, had a fever around 41º, and was lethargic. She ended up taking him to the Children's ER and says that staff mentioned to her they had seen children come through with similar issues after swimming at Birds Hill. Staff had mentioned it may have been a virus that children passed along while playing or through the water.

"They said it was probably an internal virus. They said it was interesting that we had mentioned that we were at Birds Hill Park because they had seen a number of children coming into the ER at Children's Hospital with similar symptoms. So they suspected that it was an internal virus that could be transmitted through the water or could be transmitted other ways just like other viruses."

She wonders if it was a virus though because of how quickly he became sick after swimming, without much time for a virus to incubate. She says her son felt better after about a day and a half.

 

However, Goldstein also says that she doesn't recall seeing much in the way of algae blooms. "The water, I mean, it doesn't always look the clearest. There was a little bit of a grey scuzz in certain areas of the sand."

Goldstein also points out that hospital staff only said "a number of children" had come through and not "hundreds" as the Facebook posts claim.

A spokesperson with the WRHA says that it is unlikely parents would be told that the ER has treated "500 people after swimming at Birds Hill Park" as they don't track such things and emergency room doctors wouldn't have access to them anyways.

"We don't log that we think they got (the illness) at Birds Hill Park, or Falcon Lake, or Lake Winnipeg or wherever," the spokesperson says. "It's a suspected source, anyways, because they could have gone to Birds Hill Park that day and went swimming but they ate a hamburger that wasn't cooked properly and that's what made them sick, or didn't wash their hands after going to the washroom. There's no way of confirming that it's Birds Hill Park as opposed to another source of infection. We do not have any stats whatsoever on whether anyone got sick at Birds Hill Park."

The WRHA spokesperson says that's not to say there isn't an issue with water quality, but that it's not likely that numbers were being reported to parents in that manner.

The province says that E. coli densities were also briefly elevated last week at Birds Hill Park but had returned below the recreation guideline by the end of the week.  Water is being retested, and the results will be posted as soon as they are available.

The province has general recommendations for swimmers as well:

  • Wash your hands before handling food. The simple action of washing your hands before touching food will reduce your risk of ingesting harmful organisms that may be on the beach.
  • Avoid swallowing lake water when playing or swimming.
  • Stay away from the water if you are experiencing digestive or intestinal problems

The province also posts algae and E. coli counts for beaches in provincial parks on a website that you can view before heading out to a beach.