Debilitating disease blamed on bacteria-infested shower heads

DENVER - A hot shower or a dip in the hot tub seems pretty routine and relaxing. But, for some women there's a risk.

Mary Lou Area had been traveling back and forth to California to care for her dying mother when the unusual symptoms started.

"Just coughing and coughing. And the coughing kept getting worse where I would just cough up Kleenexes full of stuff," Area described.

After weeks of coughing to the point of exhaustion, she went to see a specialist.

"He said, 'You may have this really weird thing,'" she remembered.

Area was diagnosed with Non-Tuberculous Mycobacterium Complex or NTM. It often affects women around age 50 who are slim, Caucasian, and otherwise in good health.

Physicians like Dr. Michael Iseman specialize in treating rare respiratory infections, and he tells us he's seeing a spike in the number of NTM cases.

"For a number of patients, I am absolutely persuaded that showers are the primary means by which they were infected. We see hundreds if not approaching a thousand patients a year with this condition," Dr. Iseman said.

Our sister station in Denver, KMGH-TV found more evidence linking showers to NTM at a lab in Colorado.

Professor Norman Pace and his students spearheaded a recent study that found 30 percent of shower heads harbor significant levels of disease-causing bacteria.

"NTM pulmonary disease is heavily under-diagnosed and probably more prevalent in the community than we think," Pace said.

According to Pace, all of us are bathed in bacteria every day. Most of it is harmless, but in the shower, potentially harmful bacteria have a direct route to your respiratory system. That includes bacteria breeding in your household pipes where the water sits between uses.

Mary Lou Area believes she knows the source of her disease.

"I truly believe i got it from a shower head," she said.

To help prevent bacteria buildup, remove and soak your shower heads in bleach regularly.

If they don't come clean, throw them out and replace them. And avoid steam rooms, hot tubs or any environment where bacteria particles could be inhaled.