Waterborne epidemics in Finland in 1998-1999

Abstract

Fourteen waterborne epidemics occurred in Finland during 1998-1999. About 7,300 illness cases were registered in these outbreaks. All except one of the waterborne epidemics were associated with undisinfected groundwaters. An equal number of waterborne epidemics occurred in public and private water systems, but most cases of illness occurred in public water systems. The three largest epidemics comprised 6,700 illness cases. Insufficient purification treatment unable to remove Norwalk-like viruses caused the only waterborne epidemic in a surface water plant. The main reasons for groundwater outbreaks were floods and surface runoffs which contaminated water. Norwalk-like viruses caused eight and Campylobacter three of the outbreaks. In two cases the epidemic ceased by the exhaustion of susceptible persons in the exposed community but in most cases it was terminated by changing the water source, boiling the drinking water, and starting chlorination.

Resistance and Resilience of A Stream Salamander To Supraseasonal Drought

“…Health Climate change is also likely to affect water quality and quantity in Europe, and hence the risk of contamination of public and private water supplies (Miettinen et al, 2001;Hunter, 2003;Elpiner, 2004;Kovats and Tirado, 2006). Both extreme rainfall and droughts can increase the total microbial loads in freshwater and have implications for disease outbreaks and water-quality monitoring (Howe et al, 2002;Kistemann et al, 2002;Opopol et al 2003;Knight et al, 2004;Schijven and de Roda Husman, 2005).…”

A klímaváltozás emberi jogi aspektusai

“…Climate change is also likely to affect water quality and quantity in Europe, and hence the risk of contamination of public and private water supplies (Miettinen et al, 2001;Hunter, 2003;Elpiner, 2004;Kovats and Tirado, 2006). Higher temperatures have implications for food safety, as transmission of salmonellosis is temperature sensitive Opopol and Nicolenco, 2004;van Pelt et al 2004).…”

Impact of Climate Change on the Geographic Scope of Diseases

“…Various studies have shown that many disease outbreaks associated with water are preceded by heavy rainfall events [42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. An example of this phenomenon is with the cryptosporidiosis outbreak associated with borehole extracted groundwater, where heavy rainfall led to running water from, fecally polluted, cattle grazing fields leaking into the borehole water supply [44].…”