Conventional treatments of water-associated infectious diseases

Abstract

Water-borne infectious diseases are the major threats to the population living in the developing countries. Treatment of water-associated infectious diseases mainly involves patient care and supportive therapy which includes the symptomatic management of the diseases. Numerous drugs are undergoing clinical trials to evaluate their efficacy against several water-associated infections but still there is an unmet gap. For bacterial and parasitic infections, antibiotics are given and found to be effective against these infections whereas in most cases of viral infections no licensed antiviral drug is available. But the development of multiple drug resistance in water-associated pathogens has posed new challenge for the complete management of these infections. World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recommended various guidelines for the treatment and prevention of water-associated infectious pathogens using drugs and vaccines which are the most robust and promising way to restrict these infections. Some of the vaccines available are against water-associated infectious diseases such as malaria vaccine: Mosquirix or also known as RTS, S/AS01 (RTS, S); typhoid vaccine: inactivated vaccine given as a shot; live attenuated vaccine given orally; oral cholera vaccines (OCV); oral polio vaccine; and dengue vaccine: Dengvaxia, DENVax. The drugs approved for the treatment of these diseases include doxycycline for cholera, miltefosine for amoebic meningoencephalitis, azithromycin for Campylobacter jejuni, and nitazoxanide for cryptosporidiosis.