Foodborne

Lifewater teaches proper handwashing in three developing countries.When handwashing in unavailable, cholera can impact an entire village. In developing countries like Ethiopia, data shows that 40 percent of households do not have means to wash their hands properly, meaning they don’t have safe water, soap, and a facility to wash. This makes hygiene management and disease prevention nearly impossible for these communities.



In mild forms, symptoms of leptospirosis include fever, headache, and muscle aches. Severe leptospirosis causes jaundice, kidney dysfunction, and bleeding; this triad of symptoms is referred to as Weil’s disease. Severe leptospirosis can also present with pulmonary hemorrhage, or bleed from the lungs, which may or may not be accompanied by jaundice. Leptospirosis is distributed globally; however, it is most common in tropical and subtropical regions. It’s estimated that leptospirosis affects one million people a year, with 10% of infected people dying of the infection.

Although the immediate effects of Category 5 hurricanes are shocking, resulting in floodwaters carry more insidious threats such as waterborne disease. A review of 548 outbreaks dating back to 1900 showed that 51% of these outbreaks were preceded by heavy downpours. Amoebiasis, or amebiasis, refers to infection caused by the amoeba Entamoeba histolytica.

For over 40 years, Lifewater has sought out these places, working with communities to teach vital sanitation and health practices and constructing custom water technologies in places where water access is most difficult. Of the seven most common waterborne diseases in the world, diarrhea is the central symptom. The latest research shows that diarrhea is the second leading cause of death for children under the age of five, causing more childhood deaths than malaria, AIDS, and measles combined. Although there is a vaccine for cholera, it’s expensive, not that effective, and not that helpful in managing outbreaks. From a public health perspective, the best way to deal with cholera outbreaks is to establish proper waste disposal and provide clean food and water. People typically get sick from recreational water illnesses when they accidentally ingest water contaminated by fecal matter.

Typhoid is spread by human waste, and by waters contaminated with waste in locales where proper sanitation services are absent. Water-borne outbreaks have the potential to be rather large and of mixed etiology but the actual disease burden in Europe is difficult to approximate and most likely underestimated. In 2006, merely 17 water-borne outbreaks were reported by five countries, clearly significantly under-reported. They involved a total of 3952 patients, of which 181 were hospitalised, afflicted by a number of causative agents including campylobacter, calicivirus, giardia, and cryptosporidium. Governments of the countries with high incidence of water-borne diseases, often run health check-up and awareness campaigns. They educate and sensitize the communities about the risks and common precautions.

The unprocessed water from such sources becomes harmful for routine use due to the high microbial burden. The overflowing of sewage treatment plants during floods becomes the immediate risk that needs to be curbed. On the other hand, drought-affected areas also become high-risk due to the accumulation of high concentration of pathogens in a limited amount of available water sources. The protozoan organism is transmitted by unknowingly consuming cysts in food, and it affects the intestine. The common symptoms of amoebiasis include abdominal cramps and watery stools.

This creates the perfect environment for biofilm-related pathogens to grow (e.g. NTM, Pseudomonas, and Legionella) in biofilms. On top of this, our deteriorating water infrastructure is overwhelmed by the millions of pipes that are decades past their lifespan. These pipes create continual maintenance issues that can develop into emergency situations (e.g., a water main break), during which pathogens may contaminate water in the system. How did biofilm-related diseases become such a significant driver of the waterborne disease burden in the United States?

Cholera ravages developing nations with poor water and sewage treatment, and is the scourge of famine, crowding, and war. The last big outbreak of cholera in the Western hemisphere occurred in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Water-related insect vector diseases include malaria, filariasis, yellow fever, and river blindness. The most common of these, Malaria, is transmitted through the mosquitos which breed on fresh or brackish water. These diseases are spread by insects which form habitats on stagnant water sources.

Avoiding the water clogging (e.g., from rain) surrounding the houses is an important Water Crisis in india step to prevent water-borne diseases. Water-borne diseases are the ones caused by pathogenic microbes spread via contaminated water. Anyone with a diarrheal illness should avoid swimming in public pools or lakes, sharing baths with others, and preparing food for others.