Water-Borne Typhoid Fever Still a Menace
- 1 February 1931
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Public Health Association in American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health
- Vol. 21 (2) , 115-129
- https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.21.2.115-b
Abstract
While the typhoid death rate in the U. S. A. and Canada has made a phenomenal drop since 1900, many large water-borne outbreaks have occurred during the last decade. Special attention is needed for better control over the safety of water supplies in small cities, as 649% of the outbreaks in the U. S. A. and 77.5% of those in Canada occurred in cities of 5,000 population and under. A study of the causes of 282 outbreaks shows clearly the need for more attention on the part of water works and health officials, to supervision and control over treatment processes, especially over disinfection where pollutional loads on treatment plants are high or where chlorination is the only safeguard. Over 75% of the water-borne illness reported in the U. S. A. during the decade, 1920-1929, representing 40% of the outbreaks was due primarily not to pollution of the raw water at its source, but to defects in the system for collecting, treating, storing or distributing of the water for public consumption. Unprotected cross-connections between polluted fire supplies and public-water systems constituted the most important single cause contributing to water-borne outbreaks during the decade, 1920-1929, and they demand the most active attention of health and waterworks officials. During the decade there were 5 repeated water-borne outbreaks in 1 city from the same cause, and repeated outbreaks in 4, from different causes. The courts in both the U. S. A. and Canada are increasingly holding cities and water companies liable for heavy financial damages for illness resulting from pollution of public supplies.Keywords
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