Monday, November 12, 2012

Waterborne and Water-Related Diseases


Like any normal water flea, Georgia enjoyed midnight swims and doing water exercises in quiet pools of water. Unbeknown to her, she houses a microscopic larva called the guinea worm. An elderly man enters the pool for a few laps. While performing the front stroke he gasps and swallows some pool water. Along with the chlorine, he ingests our friend Georgia and her baby parasite. The stomach acid in his body dissolved the water flea and the worm larva migrates down to the connective tissue, finding some soft cavity of flesh to burrow into.
It begins growing. And growing.
A year goes by and the old man continues golfing and playing with his grandchildren while growing deeper laugh wrinkles around the eyes. The full sized guinea worm has now grown as tall as his three year-old granddaughter. Being so large, cramped inside a human body is no place for an adult guinea worm. The parasite tunnels through to the surface of the skin and creates a blister along with a burning sensation. This makes the old man want to dunk his leg into some water. This is exactly what the worm wants. When it senses that the limb is immersed, the worm wriggles through, pokes its head out of the blister, and releases a milky cocktail into the water, containing hundreds of thousands new larvae. More Georgias promptly eat them and the process starts all over again.
http://www.redpepper.co.ug/?p=1065
This is just one type of parasite one may find in your backyard.
Pathogenic microorganisms, also known as disease producing bacteria, viruses and parasites that enter water through defecation by swimmers or the flooding of sewage drains can cause serious health damage. Several problems include paralysis, heart inflammation, fever and diarrhea. Parasites vary from tiny, one-celled protozoa to multi-cellular worms that can easily be seen ranging from 1 micrometer to 2 meters long. They can be consumed from contaminated food or water, a bug bite or sexual contact. They live protected in other host bodies such as fish, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, snails or humans and either manipulate, mutilate, or consume nutrients from us. Some choose a permanent host and others go through different stages of growth or feeding in different hosts.
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2012/chapter-3-infectious-diseases-related-to-travel/malaria.htm
No one likes mosquitoes. Not only do they spread horrifying diseases like malaria, caused by injecting the parasite Plasmodium into our bodies therefore disrupting the blood supply to vital organs and causing fevers, comas or death, but these dirty needles also inoculate filarial worms. Spending a year maturing in our bodies, these worms finally move into the lymphatic system. Doesn’t sound so bad, right? Well, here’s the kicker. The lymphatic system is the part of the circulatory system responsible for allowing our excess fluids to keep moving out of our body. When the worms clog it up, causing vessels near the lymph nodes to become obstructed and inflamed, tissue starts inflating like a hot air balloon. As a result and the addition of gravity, we find ourselves with unbearable enlargements of our legs and genitalia. In conjunction with this condition’s common name Elephantitis, we can now lumber around as human elephants, our skin billowing out and folding over itself. This might be a stretch, but we probably could have replaced the rock monster in the fight against Tim Allen’s character from Galaxy Quest.
When considering malaria, yellow fever, Dengue fever, or cholera, most often a picture of a wild tropical jungle swarming with thirsty mosquitoes or the dirty brown surface waters of many African countries. The climate and humidity is optimal but it is not restricted to conditions in the tropics for disease spreading organisms. Serious epidemics have occurred worldwide since ancient times to the present day Haiti cholera outbreak. Not all cases result in death. In some cases no symptoms of the disease are seen.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/typhoid-mary-villain-or-victim.html
MaryMallon had never intended to inflict pain, but she was a murderer. By the age of 32 she had killed her first victim, an innocent laundress. In her eyes she was completely innocent and no one was going to convince her otherwise.
Mary was born in Cookstown, Ireland in 1869. When she was 15 years old she immigrated to the United States and became a cook in New York City. From 1900 to 1907 Mary had a hard time keeping a job. She would move from family to family leaving a trail of ill household members in her wake. Mary had always been a healthy girl and during her time spent in the U.S. she maintained a deceptively healthy appearance.
Her life became this predictable pattern of getting hired, infecting people and quitting her job. Three weeks after being hired by a family, a number of residents would develop seriously high fevers. She would then leave about three weeks after the outbreak occurred. Her short stay in each home was either due to her removal or the wise choice to leave before the family chose to fire her. In a period of 6 years she had left eight or more homes with members suffering from fevers, diarrhea and even death. These were cases of typhoid fever.
Typhoid is an illness spread by bacteria called Salmonellatyphi. Salmonella, like tropical Mike and Ikes, is consumed by many who have contaminated water, drink or food. In the early 1900s an estimated 3,000 to 4,500 new cases of typhoid fever were reported in NYC. 3% of typhoid victims became carriers, which meant that there were around 100 new carriers each year. Mary Mallon was one of them. Unknowingly Mary was the host of a hungry hoard of bacteria. Like the ship she took to reach the shores of the United States, she was shipping multitudes of bacteria to the expectant mouths of those she cooked for.
The seemingly harmless act of preparing a meal was the source of severe diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, delirium, hallucinations and bloody stools for many who depended on her for their source of nutrition. Once consumed, this infection traveled, carried by white blood cells, into the intestines then into the bloodstream where they get to the liver, spleen and bone marrow. Salmonella typhi multiplied in the cells of these organs then reentered the bloodstream. Invading the biliary system, gallbladder and lymphatic tissues of the bowels, they continued to release bacteria in body waste for years.
An investigation was made of the outbreaks and Mary was found to have a rare case of typhoid fever that showed no external effects. Forever remembered as Typhoid Mary, Mary Mallon had the best opportunity to infect people. As a cook in the 1900s, she made the mistake of not washing her hands thoroughly and many suffered as a result.

From a young age we are taught to wash our hands after using the toilet and before preparing food. In many developing countries there may not be clean water to wash with or drink, but even in areas that have appropriate sewage disposal, health education, proper hygiene and good sanitation may have the same issues from natural disasters such as flooding.
Those of us most likely at risk of parasites or waterborne diseases include young children, those with weaker immune systems, daycare providers, International travelers, hikers, campers or anyone else who drinks untreated or contaminated water whether it be while swimming in lakes or rivers or simply using ice cubes in your soda. There are many waterborne diseases caused by human or animal excrement, but it would be a crime to neglect those caused from chemical pollutants such as fertilizers, pesticides or heavy metals such as lead from pipes.

            Nitrates, phosphates, lead and so many other chemicals in high concentrations can be quite harmful to our health. Water is rarely a huge source of lead exposure unless the pipes used are old. Unto this day, there is still no known biological benefit of lead metal to humans. Too much can damage the kidneys along with the nervous and reproductive systems. Consumption could lead to high blood pressure or even anemia, an insufficient amount of red blood cells and transported oxygen to the body’s tissues. Young children or those of us with weaker immune systems may develop learning disabilities, mental retardation, convulsions, comas or possibly death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_baby_syndrome
            Nitrates are even worse because it is much more frequent and causes “blue baby” disease. If there are too much fertilizer added that isn’t taken up by plants, it ends up in the groundwater. If babies drink water that contains too much, they will lose oxygen flow to their brains and can cause pulmonary disease (chronic obstructive airway), cardiac failure, severe hypoxemia, death.
Of these waterborne and water-related diseases, the bacteria causing diseases are probably easily cured through the use of antibiotics, unless they adapt and become immune. The most sustainable and sensible way to prevent these diseases is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. Some ways to prevent microorganisms from contaminating your body or water source is through vaccines (oral and injectable), purifying water, having good hygiene and sanitation. Health education is crucial for all ages whether it concerns washing a child’s hands or helping a farmer know the optimal amount of fertilizer that his crop can handle so there is no excess. 

Read More:

River Blindness
How To Purify Water
During An Emergency

http://www.cartercenter.org/health/river_blindness/index.html


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