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By Nora O. Gamolo, Senior Desk
Editor
Waterborne and water-related
diseases are those caused by protozoa, viruses, bacteria and
intestinal parasites, all pathogenic or disease-causing
microorganisms directly transmitted when contaminated drinking water
is consumed.
Some 88 percent of diseases
worldwide is attributed to unsafe water supply, bad sanitation and
unhygienic practices that mostly hit the poor, weak and sick,
especially children, in developing countries—including the
Philippines.
These diseases are due to massive
pollution of water resources. According to the Water Environment
Partnership in Asia, nearly 2.2 million metric tons of organic
pollution are produced annually by domestic (48 percent),
agricultural (37 percent) and industrial (15 percent) sectors.
In the Philippines’ four
water-critical regions—the National Capital Region or Metro
Manila, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog and Central Visayas—water
pollution is caused mainly by household (or domestic) and industrial
wastes.
Untreated wastewater damages
human and animal health by spreading disease-causing bacteria and
viruses, making water unfit for drinking and for recreational use.
Both untreated water with household and industrial wastes also
threatens biodiversity and the overall quality of life in the
community.
Known diseases caused by polluted
and infected water include gastro-enteritis, diarrhea, typhoid,
cholera, dysentery, hepatitis and more recently, severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Each year, around 6,000 Filipinos
die prematurely from waterborne, or water-related diseases, such as
diarrhea, which is the second leading cause of morbidity in the
Philippines. Ironically, the Philippines is supposed to have a
relatively mild water problem compared to other countries such as
some in Africa.
The number of water-related
health outbreaks including deaths reported in Philippine newspapers
is going up. However, awareness here of the need for improved
sanitation and water pollution control, reflected by the willingness
to pay for being connected to a sewerage system where they are
available is very low.
According to the World Health
Organization, in 2004, some 85 percent of Filipinos had sustainable
access to an improved water source, while 72 percent had access to
improved sanitation. As of 2006, the target for reduction in
diarrhea incidence had already been reached at 708 per 100,000. This
decline was largely due to the increase in access to safe water and
sanitation services and hand washing.
That was big improvement over
2000, when the incidence of diarrhea was a record high of 1,135 per
100,000 population and diarrhea deaths were 5.3 per 100,000. The
Department of Health exceeded its aims to reduce diarrhea incidence
to 750 cases per 100,000 population, and the death rate to less than
one per 100,000 population by 2010.
However, despite significant
improvements in good-water and sanitation coverage, water and
sanitation-related diseases remain major health problems. High
diarrhea prevalence continues to persist in underserved areas like
the Cordillera Administrative Region, Western Visayas (Region 7) and
Mimaropa (Region 4B).
Diarrhea is most commonly caused
by “Virus [biology]” viral infections, “Parasites” parasites
or “Bacterium” bacterial toxins. Where living conditions are
sanitary and with ample good food and good potable water guaranteed,
a person sick with diarrhea usually recovers from in a few days.
However, for malnourished individuals diarrhea can lead to severe
dehydration and death without treatment and rich dietary
reinforcement.
In 2006, the Philippines suffered
several outbreaks of diarrhea spread in many parts of the country.
In Northern Luzon, several municipalities in Ifugao province were
hit, and the causative organisms isolated were identified to be
cholera and amoeba.
In a distant town in Palawan,
indigenous people had diarrhea as symptoms of deadly cholera. Some
municipalities in Catanduanes had mixed causes of diarrhea,
including the bacteria Salmonella, E. coli, Vibrios and Aeromonas
all delivered to households from a contaminated water source.
In the Visayas, a town in Bohol
province had a diarrhea epidemic caused by Shigella, and it was
later noted that the water source was contaminated. In all the
diarrhea-affected areas, deaths were reported.
While considered the usual
culprit, diarrhea is not only the water-borne disease that can
erupt. An outbreak of Hepatitis A in Surigao del Sur in Mindanao
once occurred among students of a state college, with contaminated
food sold outside the school traced as the infection source. The
food sold to the students were prepared with contaminated water.
Hepatitis A or infectious
hepatitis is an “Acute [medica]” acute “Infectious disease”
liver disease caused by a virus commonly transmitted by the
“Fecal-oral route” fecal-oral route via contaminated food or
drinking water. In “Developing country” developing countries,
and in regions with poor hygienic standards, the “Incidence [epidemiology]”
incidence of infection with this virus approaches 100 percent, and
the illness is usually contracted in early childhood.
Dengue fever and dengue
hemorrhagic fever are acute diseases found in the tropics, caused by
viruses that spread like malaria. Unlike malaria, dengue is often
found in urban areas. Dengue is normally transmitted to humans by
the Aedes aegypti mosquito that feeds during the day.
In areas with many bodies of
stagnant water, such as in Metro Manila, dengue continues to be a
major water-borne disease. It happened in the early part of this
year in Laguna.
In 2006, dengue hit several
cities of Luzon and over 28,000 cases were recorded in sentinel
hospitals. But it was estimated that there were really more than
100,000 cases.
Metro Manila and the Cordillera
Autonomous Region recorded a 30 percent increase in dengue cases,
although mortality was reduced to 0.75 percent. Dengue is now
spreading to semi-urban pockets of Mindanao.
All these disease outbreaks point
to poor environmental sanitation, contaminated water and food as the
most likely causes. Rural areas are the most affected because of
water systems like traditional wells and polluted rivers streams.
The reduction of the burden of
water-borne diseases requires citizens’ access to safe water and
sanitation services.
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