This Is the Worst Infection You Can Get From A Hot Tub

The peak of relaxation, is, inarguably, settling into a small, human-sized bowl of hot, bubbling water, and letting it jostle by your genitals in the presence of friends and possibly strangers. Unfortunately, though, an awkward lull in conversation, or an undesirable sighting of an old man’s steamed testicle drooping from his swim shorts is far from the worst thing you can find in a hot tub. In fact, it’s best for everyone’s mental peace to push away the thought of how much bacteria might be swimming in this comfy little petri dish if chlorination schedules haven’t been neatly followed.

A couple different common ailments love the environment a hot tub provides, like the classic urinary tract infection. Hot tubs even boast a couple signature infections, like hot tub lung and hot tub rash. You also could pick up an unfortunate case of something I clearly thought was much more exotic than it is in the form of Legionnaire's disease. I’d always assumed that was some sort of foot rash caused by strappy leather sandals, but apparently it’s a pretty serious strain of pneumonia. Additionally, there’s a threat of the constant, confusing boogeyman that is MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a nasty infection that can lead to death.

These all pale in comparison, however, to one absolutely horrific infection you can pick up during a quick soak. But first, the caveats: It’s exceedingly rare, so you don’t need to swear off jacuzzis forever. It’s also mostly a threat when you’re getting into a communal hot tub with an open wound, which is both ill-advised and a bit of a party foul. That said, as my newly made-up saying goes, “Where there’s a jacooze, there’s usually booze”; so a couple beers might convince you that a leg cut is no biggie to stop your submersion.

It will become a massive biggie, though, if you’re unlucky enough to contract necrotizing fasciitis from said wound and hot-tub interaction. Even breaking this down linguistically, we start to get the picture. “Necrotizing” meaning causing necrosis, or the death of bodily tissue. “Fasciitis” refers to inflammation of the fascia, the tissue under your skin that surrounds muscles and nerves. Stick them together, and you’ve got a deeply gross and deeply dangerous death of a whole lot of tissue. 

Or, you could simply call it by its nickname: flesh-eating disease. A disease which, to everyone’s disappointment, moves quite quickly. It starts with a swollen area of skin, severe pain and fever, and before you know it, you're getting antibiotic IVs and probable multiple surgeries to remove dead, infected tissue from your insides, even as far as amputation. All this being ultimately meaningless for the 1 in 5 people who still die after receiving treatment.

All in all, it’s a great thing to bring up if you want to cut a hot-tub party short before you have to take your shirt off.