Swimming in a river, versus wading/swimming in a cave?
I would suggest, instead of going into minute detail, a statement like this: Caving is like any other outdoor activity in that a participant is likely to encounter potentially harmful insects and pests, animal guano or feces, bad air, untreated water, bacteria, fungi, microbes and viruses unlike those in a participant’s daily life. Many caves have bats, and a small percentage of bats (just like deer, squirrels and other mammals) carry rabies. The risk exposure to bat rabies on a particular trip is highly minimized by instructing partipants they are not to touch and refrain from disturbing wild animals as much as possible. This possibility exists on every cave trip, but the probability that one’s child would contract rabies as long as they avoid direct animal contact is much lower than the probability of them being involved in a traffic accident on the way to the cave. To further minimize risk of illness, we suggest that children with open cuts, sores, stitches or abrasions not particip
