The CDC announced today that an outbreak of campylobacteriosis—your guess is as good as mine—affected 22 participants of a Tough Mudder race, most likely because the racers inadvertently swallowed “muddy surface water contaminated with cattle or swine feces” on the farmland that hosted the race. And you thought the dangling live wires were bad.
This outbreak was discovered after an October 2012 race on a cattle ranch in Beatty, Nevada.
After three patients showed up to the emergency room with bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting, the public health service at Nellis Air Force Base, near Las Vegas, began an investigation. Along with state and local officials, they traced the cause to a bacteria, Campylobacter coli, a common cause of diarrheal illness.
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In the CDC’s report, they recommend that the race planners “consider building slurry field challenges where animal fecal contamination is not likely.”
If you complete a Tough Mudder, you’re a badass. Both because you’re tough, and because what’s happening to your ass is… bad.
I’m so sorry.
[H/T: Business Insider]