Reading mom, kids get rash, sick after Blue Marsh Lake visit during algae bloom advisory

Aug. 7—Brittney Fox decided to take her toddlers to Blue Marsh Lake for the first time on Saturday, July 23, so they could cool off after the temperature had climbed to 97 degrees. They sat on the beach and let the wake from passing watercraft slosh over their legs.

"We were down by the water maybe 15 or 20 minutes," Fox said. "We weren't down there very long."

The next morning her son, Declan, 1 1/2 , and daughter, Ember, 2 1/2 , woke up with blistering rashes, fevers, sore throats and then diarrhea.

Fox said the rash was pretty much only on their legs, so she began to wonder if it had to do with the lake water that was lapping at them along the shore the day before. She began searching online and found that Blue Marsh had issued a harmful algal bloom advisory on July 21 but said she did not see any information about it.

The harmful algal bloom, or HAB, is a yearly occurrence at the 1,150-acre lake that is mostly in Bern and Lower Heidelberg townships with portions reaching into North Heidelberg and Penn townships. The HABs are a result of agricultural use in the watershed and runoff, according to the Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District, which oversees the lake and 6,100-acre park.

The blooms tend to peak when heat waves occur. The most common cause is naturally occurring cyanobacteria rapidly reproducing in the nutrient-rich water and producing cyanotoxins, which can make people and animals sick.

Fox decided to take her children to Patient First Primary and Urgent Care in Wyomissing, but found out her insurance was not accepted there. She said the nurse told her she thought the children really should be seen somewhere.

Fox made an appointment with her children's pediatrician in Wyomissing for the next day.

"The pediatrician didn't know what it was," she said. "Then I started developing the rash and fever, went to urgent care and they didn't know what it was either, so they said they were going to be calling infectious diseases."

Fox said the staff at Tower Health Urgent Care Wyomissing and her children's pediatrician consulted.

"They even tested my children for monkeypox," Fox said. "That's how unsure they were."

Her children were given antibiotics, and that seemed to help, she said.

"The pediatrician, the person from urgent care and the person from infectious diseases all said the same thing, that it came from a toxin released by the blue-green algae," Fox said.

Fox said her children's pediatrician called her back to get more information after having more patients come in with the same symptoms. She said the pediatrician did not want to make a statement to the Reading Eagle.

Jessica Bezler, public relations manager at Tower Health, said her team was not aware of patients with a similar sickness. She did not respond when presented with information about Fox's visit.

"The nursing staff at our Wyomissing center does not recall treating any other similar cases in recent weeks," said Todd Krickler, a community relations manager for Patient First.

St. Luke's, which operates a walk-in care center in Hamburg, did not respond to a request asking if it had treated any patients with apparent cyanobacteria infection.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health did not respond by deadline to a request seeking reports of potential harmful algal bloom sickness in Berks County. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said it does not have short-term data, such as the last 30 days. It collects data from states yearly. The latest data reviewed and published was from 2019.

Blue Marsh had elevated the harmful algal bloom alert to an advisory on July 21. The state Department of Health has an HABs dashboard on its website, but it showed no data for Blue Marsh Lake samples within the past month.

"We have not had any direct report from any individual doctor's office or state or other agency regarding any illness report after recreating at the lake," Brianna Treichler, natural resource specialist and ranger at Blue Marsh, said Friday.

She said Blue Marsh officials do not consider comments on social media posts a direct report.

"When we see indicators of harmful algal blooms — those big, matting scumlike layers, which is deemed as an indicator of a harmful algal bloom, we will pull tests from those. We have been doing other testing in-house as well," Treichler said. "And all of our results have come back where they do not warrant any additional action to be taken outside of us posting an advisory and notifying the public.

"It's that time of year when we may be seeing these, and there's potential for there to be harmful algae and the toxins associated with them."

She said there is also E.coli testing done at the swim beach at the Dry Brooks Day Use area twice a week.

"We would be the first one to close our swim beach if it came back to anything where it would be hazardous or harmful to the public," Treichler said. "All those levels have been well within standards."

Blue Marsh posts algae bloom information on all of its bulletin boards throughout the park, on social media and on its website and sends out press releases, Treichler said.

When in doubt, stay out, is the is the best advice Blue Marsh offers, she said. If people come in contact with what appears to be algae, she said they should rinse off with fresh water as soon as possible.

Fox and her children were doing better last week, but she said their stomachs still were not settled. She posted on Facebook about her experience July 30, and it was shared more than 3,500 times.

"I wanted to warn other families that were going there," Fox said.

More information about harmful algal blooms is available at https://www.dep.pa.gov/Business/Water/HABs and https://www.cdc.gov/habs/illness-symptoms-freshwater.html . Health-related questions about HABs can be sent via email to env.health.concern@pa.gov.

How to report sickness

If anyone becomes sick after having contact with Blue Marsh Lake water, call the office at 610-376-6337 and leave a message with information on the incident and how to contact the person making the report.

An email also can be sent through the website: https://bit.ly/BlueMarshRec, but Ranger and Natural Resource Specialist Brianna Treichler said leaving a phone message would be better.

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