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Waterborne diseases were once wrongly explained by the miasma theory, the theory that bad air causes the spread of diseases. [ 27 ] [ 28 ] However, people started to find a correlation between water quality and waterborne diseases, which led to different water purification methods, such as sand filtering and chlorinating their drinking water.
Viruses are a major cause of human waterborne and water-related diseases. Waterborne diseases are caused by water that is contaminated by human and animal urine and feces that contain pathogenic microorganisms. A subject can get infected through contact with or consumption of the contaminated water.
One of the most commonly transmitted waterborne disease categories are the diarrhea diseases. [11] These diseases are transmitted through unsafe drinking water or recreational water contact. [33] Diarrheal diseases account for 10–12% of deaths in children under five, as the second leading cause of death in children this age.
Most waterborne diseases cause diarrheal illness [Note: not all diseases listed below cause diarrhea]. Eighty-eight percent of diarrhea cases worldwide are linked to unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene. These cases result in 1.5 million deaths each year, mostly in young children. The usual cause of death is ...
Pathogens can produce waterborne diseases in either human or animal hosts. [12] Some microorganisms sometimes found in contaminated surface waters that have caused human health problems include Burkholderia pseudomallei, Cryptosporidium parvum, Giardia lamblia, Salmonella, norovirus and other viruses, and parasitic worms including the ...
The disease was a common cause of death for Egyptians in the Greco-Roman Period. [ 87 ] In 2016, more than 200 million people needed treatment, but only 88 million people were actually treated for schistosomiasis.
The first two deaths from waterborne bacterial disease were reported in southern Brazil, where floodwaters were slowly receding, and health authorities warned additional fatalities were likely.
Dracunculiasis, also called Guinea-worm disease, is a parasitic infection by the Guinea worm, Dracunculus medinensis. A person becomes infected by drinking water contaminated with Guinea-worm larvae that reside inside copepods (a type of small crustacean).