Waterborne diseases in Peru

The cholera epidemic in Peru brought to light the miserable state of local water and sanitation conditions. The author discusses the relationship between waterbone diseases and water and sewerage conditions in Peruvian peri-urban areas, or pueblos jovenes. These diseases are associated with poor living conditions. In 1989, only 52 percent of the population had access to piped water, and only 39 percent to sewerage. About 52 percent of schools lack light, water, and sewerage. In Lima, 2 million people daily eat meals from street vendors who lack access to fresh water or toilet facilities - 90 percent of a sample of their food was fecally contaminated. The author estimates the per capita costs of providing in-house water and sewerage facilities in urban areas to be $150 in urban and$180 in rural areas. The cost of constructing easy-access water facilities (a standpipe less than 1,000 meters from each house) and latrines in urban and rural areas is an estimated $30 per capita. In contrast, the author estimates the annual per capita cost borne by urban households without in-house continuous water connections (that is, households that buy water from vendors) to be$40. In short, the total cost borne by the urban poor over four years is equivalent to the cost of providing them with permanent water and sewerage facilities. Providing those facilities would relieve the urban poor devoting an average of 23 percent of their income to meeting their water needs.Water Conservation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Water and Industry,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions

Climate change and water-related infectious diseases

Background: Water-related, including waterborne, diseases remain important sources of morbidity and mortality worldwide, but particularly in developing countries. The potential for changes in disease associated with predicted anthropogenic climate changes make water-related diseases a target for prevention. Methods: We provide an overview of evidence on potential future changes in water-related disease associated with climate change. Results: A number of pathogens are likely to present risks to public health, including cholera, typhoid, dysentery, leptospirosis, diarrhoeal diseases and harmful algal blooms (HABS). The risks are greatest where the climate effects drive population movements, conflict and disruption, and where drinking water supply infrastructure is poor. The quality of evidence for water-related disease has been documented. Conclusions: We highlight the need to maintain and develop timely surveillance and rapid epidemiological responses to outbreaks and emergence of new waterborne pathogens in all countries. While the main burden of waterborne diseases is in developing countries, there needs to be both technical and financial mechanisms to ensure adequate quantities of good quality water, sewage disposal and hygiene for all. This will be essential in preventing excess morbidity and mortality in areas that will suffer from substantial changes in climate in the future

Listeria Initiative

Listeria monocytogenes is estimated to cause nearly 1,600 illnesses each year in the United States; more than 1,400 related hospitalizations and 250 related deaths occur. Listeria infections (listeriosis) are nationally notifiable. Nearly all cases of listeriosis in persons who are not infants result from eating food contaminated with L. monocytogenes; newborn infants can develop listeriosis if their mother ate contaminated food during pregnancy. The Listeria Initiative is an enhanced surveillance system that collects reports of laboratory-confirmed cases of human listeriosis in the United States. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, and epidemiologic data are collected using a standardized, extended questionnaire. The Listeria Initiative was piloted in the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) in 2004 and implemented nationwide in 2005. Both the number of states participating in and the number of reports sent to the Listeria Initiative have increased since 2004. A main objective of the Listeria Initiative is to aid in the investigation of listeriosis clusters and outbreaks by decreasing the time from outbreak detection to public health intervention. Patient interviews are conducted as cases are reported, rather than after clusters are identified, to minimize the effect of recall bias on food consumption history. In addition, clinical, food, and environmental isolates of L. monocytogenes are subtyped using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE, a type of DNA fingerprinting). PFGE results are submitted to PulseNet, the National Molecular Subtyping Network for Foodborne Disease Surveillance, to identify clusters of possibly related cases. When clusters are identified, Listeria Initiative data are used to rapidly conduct epidemiological analyses. The food consumption histories of patients with cluster-associated illnesses are compared with those of patients with sporadic illnesses to identify foods possibly associated with the cluster. Without the Listeria Initiative database, appropriate comparison data ("controls") for listeriosis investigations would be difficult to obtain through traditional methods; the source population at risk of invasive listeriosis--older adults, immunocompromised persons, and pregnant women--is a small segment of the general population.Surveillance system overview: The Listeria Initiative -- Overview of Listeria taxonomy -- References -- Suggested readings.January 2013.Available via the World Wide Web as an Acrobat .pdf file (617.65 KB, 2 p.).Includes bibliographical references (p. 2).CDC. National Listeria Surveillance Overview. Atlanta, Georgia: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, 2011

Small irrigation tanks as a source of malaria mosquito vectors: a study in north-central Sri Lanka

Watersheds / Tank irrigation / Rehabilitation / Malaria / Waterborne diseases / Disease vectors / Sri Lanka / Yan Oya

CDC and food safety

"Food safety depends on strong partnerships. CDC and the regulatory agencies (the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] and the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service [FSIS]) play complementary roles in the federal food safety effort. State and local health departments also play critical roles in all aspects of food safety. CDC provides the vital link between illness in people and the food safety systems of government agencies and food producers. CDC does this by: Monitoring human illness--tracking the occurrence of foodborne diseases; Defining the public health burden of foodborne illness; Attributing illness to specific foods and settings; Investigating outbreaks and sporadic cases--managing the DNA 'fingerprinting' network for foodborne illness-causing germs in all states to detect outbreaks; Empowering state and local health departments; Targeting prevention measures to meet long-term food safety goals; Informing food safety action and policy--the new Food Safety Modernization Act and the egg safety regulation were driven in part by CDC data and investigative findings." - p. [1]"CS217502A.""January 2011."Mode of access: World Wide Web as an Acrobat .pdf file (1.05 MB, 2 p.).Text document (PDF)

Malaria in Sri Lanka: Current knowledge on transmission and control

Malaria / Disease vectors / Waterborne diseases / Environmental effects / Public health / Economic impact / Social impact / Sri Lanka

Pathogens causing US foodborne illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths, 2000-2008

Table of food pathogens and the estimated number of illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths caused by them."April 2012."Available via the World Wide Web as an Acrobat .pdf file (247.13 KB, 1 p.)

National Enteric Disease Surveillance: listeria annual summary, 2011

An overview of the Listeria Initiative surveillance system is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nationalsurveillance/listeria_surveillance.html. For this report, a case of invasive listeriosis is defined as isolation of Listeria monocytogenes from a normally sterile site (e.g., blood or cerebrospinal fluid [CSF]) or from products of conception (e.g., amniotic fluid, placental or fetal tissue). For cases in which L. monocytogenes is isolated from multiple anatomical sites, the case is considered to be invasive if any isolate is obtained from a normally sterile site. For cases in which L. monocytogenes is isolated from multiple normally sterile anatomical sites, the annual summary reports the most invasive site, using a hierarchy (in descending order of invasiveness: CSF, bone or joint fluid, blood, other sterile site, and other products of conception). Each mother-infant pair in episodes of pregnancy-associated listeriosis is reported as a single case, even when clinical isolates are obtained from both the mother and the infant. The rationale is that an episode of pregnancy-associated listeriosis inherently involves both the mother and the infant, because the infant's infection, in most if not all cases, occurs because the mother ate contaminated food. Cases are classified as pregnancy-associated if illness occurs in a pregnant woman or infant <\ucc\ub228 days old; all other cases are considered to not be associated with pregnancy.Listeria Initiative data -- Listeriosis not associated with pregnancy -- Pregnancy-associated listeriosis -- Investigations -- Listeria serotypes -- Performance measures -- NNDSS data -- Outbreak data.January 2013.CS237579-D.Available via the World Wide Web as an Acrobat .pdf file (275.83 KB, 7 p.).Includes bibliographical references (p. 7).Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). National Listeria Surveillance Annual Summary, 2011. Atlanta, Georgia: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, 2013

Malaria and land use: a spatial and temporal risk analysis in Southern Sri Lanka

Malaria / Waterborne diseases / Disease vectors / Land use / Water use / GIS / Statistical analysis / Risks / Mapping / Public health / Sri Lanka / Uda Walawe / Thanamalvila / Embilipitiya