Viral Waterborne Diseases

Viral waterborne diseases occur when water is contaminated and that affected water comes in contact with humans. Drinking water can be contaminated by human or animal feces that contain pathogenic microorganisms which cause water borne diseases and viruses. In developing countries four-fifths of all of the illness are caused by water-borne diseases with diarrhea being the leading cause of childhood death. Flood waters can carry many harmful diseases and viruses, including raw sewage, and chemical wastes. Infections diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and protozoa are the most common and wide spread health risk associated with drinking water. Historically, few cases of waterborne disease have been attributed to viruses, largely because of limitations in diagnosis. However, according to Timothy Ford of the Harvard School of Public Health, advances in identifying viral agents has significantly increased the number of cases of enteric disease that are determined to be of viral etiology. A number of authors now suggest that Norwalk virus and Norwalk-like viruses are the major causes of both food and waterborne illnesses worldwide, including 6.5 million annual cases of waterborne viral disease in the United States alone (Stenson).

Floodwaters inevitably are contaminated with raw sewage. Even so, this water is not particularly dangerous unless a person drinks it or unless it gets into untreated wounds. Unfortunately, after many natural disasters many people have wounds, and do get infected. Hand washing is the best way to prevent disease, but even hand washing is difficult in the absence of clean water. If available, alcohol-based hand sanitizers are very effective and water can be disinfected. This can be done by boiling water or, if boiling is impossible, by disinfection. One often overlooked source of contamination is bottled water from unsafe sources. Once floodwaters recede, the risk of waterborne illness remains until municipal and home water systems can be fully disinfected (Bohnham). Most infections come from drinking water contaminated with fecal matter. Waterborne illnesses have similar symptoms: diarrhea, cramping, fever, and/or vomiting. The specific symptoms depend on the type of illness and on the infected person's health. The good news is that widespread disease rarely follows modern U.S. disasters (Broke). Among the various factors held responsible for water borne viruses, flooding assumes a leading role and is associated with an increased risk of infection due to significant population displacement and compromise in the water quality. It can potentially increase the transmission of the following communicable diseases. Contaminated drinking water is also a huge threat to humans because of the many diseases that it often transmits. The diseases are in three major categories, being bacterial, which is cause by bacteria in water, viral, caused by viruses in water, and parasitic, caused by a parasitic protozoa or worm in water (Bohnham).

Hepatitis A (also known as infectious hepatitis) is a major viral disease that can be transmitted through contaminated drinking water. The Hepatitis A virus is associated with the following effects: fever, sever headache, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, muscle ache, and inflammation of the liver. It is fatal, but may cause permanent liver damage if untreated. Polio, caused by the poliovirus, usually results in a sore throat, fever, diarrhea, and muscle aches (Broke). Hepatitis A was one of the main worries after Hurricane Katrina plowed through Louisiana.

In the last year, there have been two major natural disasters where viral waterborne diseases have been one of the major setbacks in rebuilding these areas. After the Tsunami attack in Asia on December 26, 2004, the greatest problem people faced was the threat of Water Borne Diseases, linked to flood waters like Shigellosis, Cholera, Hepatitis A, Leptospirosis, Typhoid Fever, Malaria and Dengue fever. Drinking of polluted drinking