Water Borne Diseases

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Waterborne diseases General InformationWater-borne diseases are any illness caused by drinking water contaminated by human or animal faeces, which contain pathogenic microorganisms. The full picture of water-associated diseases is complex for a number of reasons. Over the past decades, the picture of water-related human health issues has become increasingly comprehensive, with the emergence of new water-related infection diseases and the re-emergence of ones already known. Data are available for some water-, sanitation- and hygiene-related diseases (which include salmonellosis, cholera, shigellosis), but for others such malaria, schistosomiasis or the most modern infections such legionellosis or SARS CoV the analyses remain to be done. The burden of several disease groups can only partly be attributed to water determinants. Even where water plays an essential role in the ecology of diseases, it may be hard to pinpoint the relative importance of aquatic components of the local ecosystems. | Water realated diseases:Anaemia Arsenicosis Ascariasis Botulism Campylobacteriosis Cholera Cryptosporiodiosis Cyanobacterial toxins Dengue Diarrhoea Dracunculiasis Fluorosis Giardiasis Hepatitis Hookworm infection Japanese encephalitis Lead poisoning Legionellosis Leptospirosis Lymphatic filariasis Malaria Malnutrition Methaemoglobinemia Onchocerciasis Polio Ring Worm or Tinea Scabies Schistomiasis Trachoma Trichuriasis Typhoid | | Dimension of the problemIn developing countries four-fifths of all the illnesses are caused by water-borne diseases, with diarrhoea being the leading cause of childhood death.The global picture of water and health has a strong local dimension with some 1.1 billion people still lacking access to improved drinking water sources and some 2.4 billion to adequate sanitation. Today we have strong evidence that water-,

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