Waterborne Diseases and Water Purification
July/August 2008 ISSN-1059-6518 Volume 21 Number 4
As has been mentioned several times in previous articles, waterborne diseases are some of the most common diseases known to man. Spread primarily via the oral-fecal route when a pathogen in human or animal waste contaminates the drinking water supply, the disease-causing pathogen is then transmitted to people when they drink the water, consume food that was washed in the contaminated water or handled by dirty hands that prepared their food, or by washing their hands in the contaminated water.
The exceptions to this mode of transmission are Schistosomiasis and Naegleriasis. A common parasitic disease, Schistosomiasis is contracted by swimming in contaminated water instead of drinking it. Once the parasite is on your skin, it will make its way into your body by burrowing through your skin—in the process causing a rash known as swimmer’s itch or duck itch.
