Tainted Holy Water Caused a Cholera Outbreak in Europe

A group of devout travelers from Germany and the UK went on a spiritual pilgrimage that ended with them writhing on toilets as they were infected with a particularly nasty strain of drug-resistant cholera. Health officials traced the outbreak to tainted holy water that the travelers came into contact with while in Ethiopia.

According to health officials in Germany and the UK, seven people were infected after either visiting or coming into close contact with the famous Bermel Georgis holy well in Ethiopia. It’s a sacred spring that basically looks like a busted pipe that’s constantly spewing frothy water. It’s said that the spring has miraculous healing powers…unless it’s filled with cholera that day.

Some folks went on a spiritual trip, scooped up some holy water in plastic bottles, brought it home, drank it, splashed it on their friends’ faces, and everyone felt the Holy Spirit when they had vicious diarrhea.

The well, unfortunately, is smack dab in the middle of Ethiopia’s Amhara region, which has been dealing with a brutal cholera outbreak since 2022. So the “miracle” was less “spiritual healing” and more a vicious fight to remain hydrated while expelling every drop of moisture from their bodies.

The outbreak was so gnarly it was documented in Eurosurveillance, a scientific journal with a slightly disconcerting name that tracks diseases throughout Europe. Lab tests confirmed the cholera strain was a dead ringer for the one causing chaos in Africa—proof that the holy water took a long-haul flight overseas.

All seven people survived. Six were hospitalized, and two had symptoms so severe that they landed in the ICU, but thanks to one antibiotic that still works, they pulled through.

Unsurprisingly, health officials say you shouldn’t drink water spouting from a hole in the ground in the middle of Ethiopia, regardless of its supposedly miraculous healing properties.