By STACEY BODGER
LAKE ROTOMA - A warning sign has been put up at Soda Springs geothermal pool near Rotorua, identifying it as containing the amoeba organism that caused the death of a 10-year-old girl.
Rose Bielski-Brown, of Cambridge, died in Waikato Hospital on Monday night after contracting amoebic meningitis while swimming
at Easter.
Public health officials have refused to name the pool thought to contain the amoeba organism or to reveal whether it was the natural hot spring 35km northeast of Rotorua or the commercial Opal Hot Springs near Matamata, where the child's family also swam.
But a sign put up by Public Health's Rotorua office at Soda Springs, adjacent to Lake Rotoma, warns the public that Rose swam in the springs at Easter.
The Bay of Plenty medical officer of health, Dr Phil Shoemack, would not confirm that Soda Springs was the natural hot pool concerned.
"Naming the pool will make the public assume every other pool is safe, and that is not the case," he said. "Most thermal pools are likely to carry amoeba and the risks are just as great."
Dr Shoemack said such pools were safe only to soak in, not for jumping or diving, which could force the amoeba organism up the nose and into the brain.
