Understanding and Estimating the Risk of Waterborne Infectious Disease Associated with Drinking Water

Abstract

This chapter presents an understanding of how drinking water treatment reduces the risk of communitywide infectious disease. The presentation begins with data that demonstrate how a reduction of the typhoid risk in American cities paralleled the progressive implementation of filtration technology at the start of the twentieth century. Typhoid, which is caused by the bacteria Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, is one of numerous infectious diseases associated with the presence of microbial contaminants in drinking water. Drinking water may serve as a primary infection route for these pathogens and the pathogens often can be transmitted within human populations by other, secondary routes. A compartment disease transmission model is presented to illustrate how the use of treatment technologies both to prevent primary acquisition of infections from drinking water and to prevent secondary spread of those infections within the community can effectively reduce the extent of a waterborne infectious disease outbreak. Additionally, a risk estimation technique is presented which has been demonstrated to accurately calculate the probability of community gastrointestinal illness in human populations based upon the numbers of pathogenic bacteria, protozoa and virus in drinking water. NR - 134 PU - SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG PI - CHAM PA - GEWERBESTRASSE 11, CHAM, CH-6330, SWITZERLAND