Lake Worth Mayor Tom Ramiccio says he may need a plastic bubble to swim the Lake Worth Lagoon again.

Ramiccio thinks the half-mile Plunge Against the Grunge he made on July 4 to call attention the lagoon's dirty water put him in a hospital for three days - and left him with a mysterious month-long illness.

It's a very good example of why people shouldn't be in the water" said the mayor, who is 36 and runs a retail business, Dixie Carpet. You're swimming in the largest toilet bowl in Palm Beach County."

Ramiccio, who is fully recovered now, says the trouble began three weeks after his dip in the lagoon, which is undergoing a $52 million cleanup.

He said he developed an ear infection, followed by severe headaches and a stubborn fever that climbed to 103 degrees.

I never get sick, not even a cold," Ramiccio said.

After visiting the emergency room at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis during the first week of August, he was admitted for three days, he said.

Doctors there concluded he had pneumonia but not a variety they knew well. They haven't been able to identify what type," Ramiccio said.

None of the other Plunge participants got sick, he said.

Palm Beach County public health officials say the lagoon, which stretches from Boynton Beach to Jupiter, is not an approved bathing area, with the exception of Phil Foster Park in North Palm Beach.

Frank Gargiulo, director of environmental health and engineering for the Palm Beach County Health Department, could not recall any other lagoon swimmer who linked the water to a serious illness. Water quality there changes constantly, so he plans no investigation right now, he said.

County environmental analyst Harvey Rudolph said the segment of lagoon tucked between Lantana and Lake Worth is not as well flushed as the rest of the 40-mile waterway. It lies too far from the Boynton Inlet to the south and Lake Worth Inlet to the north.

Sewage discharges were halted long ago to the lagoon - where salt and fresh water mix - but two tiny condominiums in Ocean Ridge still emit wastewater into its waters, said Rudolph, who swims the waterway to do seagrass surveys. Saltwater tends to kill many pathogens, so you are more likely to get sick swimming in freshwater than saltwater," he said.