Water Related

Diseases
By Misbah Shahid X-A
 How diseases spread :

Many living organisms thrive in the presence of water. There is plenty

of food in water due to the presence of plants and their ability to
photosynthesise. Water provides bacteria with a nutrient-rich habitat. If
sanitation is poor, bacteria from sewage may enter drinking water.
Diseases can be spread if these bacteria are pathogens and the water in
which they dwell is not treated. Two major diseases caused by water
contaminated with human faeces are cholera and typhoid.
 Table :

Chlorea : Typhoid :
Scientifi name Vibrio Chlorea Salmonella typhi
Time before symptons Few hours to 5 Days 5-6 Days
symptons Diarrhea and vomiting Fever abdomen pain
rash
consequences Can lead to If untreated can be
dehydration and death fatal
treatment Rehydration Vaccination antibiotics
Vaccination
Occurence 172 454 in 42 21 million per year with
countries 1304 deaths 161 000 deaths
 Prevention
The crucial element in preventing these diseases being transmitted
within a population is to ensure that sewage and drinking water do
not come into contact with each other. Therefore, good sanitation is
crucial, with sewage being removed directly to a treatment works
and water being treated before it is delivered to people to drink.
Attention to good hygiene is crucial, as is the thorough cooking of
food. Contaminated water should not be used to wash food, and
hands should be washed after contact with any faecal material. Use
of efficient latrines is essential. If there is any doubt about whether
water is safe to drink, simply boiling it can eliminate most harmful
organisms.
 Malaria:
Like cholera and typhoid, malaria is a water-related disease, but the
similarity ends there. Bacterial diseases, such as cholera and
typhoid, are carried in water and referred to as water-borne diseases
Malaria :

Causes :

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium, a small

parasitic parasite. Malaria is linked to water
because the parasite that transmits the disease to
people needs water to reproduce. This organism
is a mosquito, which lays its eggs in still water
and raises its larvae there. As a vector,
mosquitoes can transmit malaria to people. A life
cycle diagram (Figure) helps to understand the
interaction between mosquitos, Plasmodium,
and humans.
 Malaria occurs in
97 (out of 193) Occurrence :
countries around the
world, mainly in
Africa, Asia and the
Americas (Figure
4.8). These
countries are home
to 3.2 billion
people, nearly half
the world's
population. In 2015
there were 214
million cases of
malaria, with about
438 000 deaths. Sub
Saharan Africa
suffered 89% of the
malaria cases, with
91% of the deaths.
 Prevention
The symptoms of malaria are flu-like and include fever and chills at first. The disease can
be fatal. Malaria can be treated but a much better option is prevention
 Prevention and control is best achieved by avoiding bites from the mosquito. Individuals can prevent
being bitten by mosquitoes by:

• avoiding being outside between dusk and dawn in countries where malaria mosquitoes are active, the
species of the Anopheles mosquito that transmits malaria only flies at night

• wearing clothing that covers most of the body and treat exposed parts of the body with mosquito-
repellent products

• sleeping under a mosquito net treated with an insecticide spraying the inside of accommodation with
insecticide.

For governments, strategies for malaria control are focused on controlling the vector. This can be
achieved by:

• spraying insecticide inside buildings, including houses draining wetland areas to remove mosquito-
breeding sites

• introducing fish, which eat the larvae and pupae of the mosquito, into ponds and other bodies of water

• pouring oil onto the surface of the water where mosquitoes breed, which stops the larvae from
breathing and stops the adults from laying eggs.
 Eradication
Eradicating malaria means completely removing the malarial parasite from
the population.

Controlling the vector is not enough, so methods must be sought to

actually destroy the parasite.WHO now encourages a programme of
eradication of malaria from all countries of the world

In the first half of the 20th century, malaria was eradicated from western
Europe and the main USA challenge for the 21st century is to achieve
eradication in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly 90% of all cases occur.
 Further Problems :
Unfortunately, there is the possibility that malaria is favoured by global warming. Recent studies
have shown that it is now occurring in highland regions of Kenya, Colombia and Ethiopia, where it
has not been seen for over 50 years. However, another recent study using a predictive approach
and taking into account the subtleties of climate change, which involves more than just a rise in
temperature, concluded that few changes in distribution would occur.

In the first 12 years of the 21st century, improvements in diagnosis, treatment and prevention have
led to a 25% decline in incidence in malaria and a 42% decline in deaths from malaria. However, it
is unlikely that these methods will result in elimination.

The mosquito vector is evolving resistanceto insecticides and the parasite is also becoming resistant to available
drugs.

Much more attentionneeds to be given to people who are infected by the disease but have no symptoms. It is clear
that
new methods for controlling malaria are needed.

Be careful not to confuse malaria with bacterial diseases, such as cholera and typhoid. Bacteria
breed in the water. Malaria is a caused by a parasite, which breeds in an insect, which breeds in
water
Thank you
Reference from Gary Skinner