Water Borne Disease

Water-borne Diseases

The use of contaminated water for personal hygiene and recreation, as well as ingestion of contaminated water directly or through food, can all have an adverse effect on a person's health. The most common water-borne illnesses in developing nations are diarrheal illnesses, which are also the most prevalent. Following are some categories for water-borne illnesses:

• Biological Hazard
• Chemical Hazard

Biological Hazard

Water-borne Diseases: are those in which infectious agent remains alive in drinking water & caused diseases as follows:

These hazards include the disease caused by the presence of an infective agent or an aquatic host in water. The infectious diseases resulting from water pollution can be classified into 4 groups, depending upon the way in which their incidence can be lessened by improvement in water supply.

Water-washed Disease: It includes infection of outer body surface eg, skin infection, skin ulcer, scabies, eye infection-trachoma.badero

Water-based Infection: Those due to the presence of aquatic (living on water) host. Such as; snail-schistosomiasis Cyclops - Guinea worm, fish tape worm

Water Breeding Disease: These caused by mosquitoes or flies living near aquatic conditions. Eg, malaria, filarial, encephalitis etc

Chemical Hazards

Chemical pollutants of diverse nature derived from industrial & agricultural wastes are increasingly findings their way into public water supplies. These pollutants include:

• Nitrogenous substances,
• Bleaching agents,
• Heavy metals,
• Dyes,
• Cyanides,
• Detergent solvent,
• Minerals & organic acids,
• Pigments,
• Sulphide,
• Ammonia,
• Toxic & biocidal organic compounds of great variety. These affect human beings directly & indirectly: eg:
• Todine deficiency -goiter,
• Excess of nitrate-methaemoglobinaemia (This is a rare occurrence) lood to digader-
• Excess of fluoride Dental & skeletal fluorosis ,
• Fluoride deficiency - dental caries.