Waterborne diseases of bacterial origin in relation to quality of water in a suburb of Uttar Pradesh.

Waterborne disorders of bacterial origin, e.g. typhoid, bacillary dysentery and diarrhea are one of the major global health problems, especially in developing countries like India. The prevalence of these diseases is largely dependent on the quality of water consumed by people. The quality of water in India is still below the WHO recommendation of zero fecal coliform/100 ml of water. The present study was conducted in a suburb of Aligarh District of U.P. (India). A total of 1270 persons were selected by paying home visits and followed up for a period of one year. The study revealed that morbidity was higher in standpost group, i.e., 88.3% while in piped water group it was 51.8%. The average episode of typhoid for both source of water was one while dysentery had 3 average episodes. The average episodes of diarrhea was 4 in stand post and 3 in piped water group. In standpost group the majority of people, (87.6%) were using unsatisfactory water as compared to 74.4% for piped water supply. The frequency of typhoid was 1.4% bacillary dysentery 3.4% and diarrhea 7.7%. The occurrence of waterborne disorders of bacterial origin was common for typhoid in the 5-12 years age group bacillary dysentery for the 1-5 years, and diarrhea for the 0-5 years age group. The morbidity rate in standpost group was comparatively higher, i.e., 79.6%. The frequency for the standpost group and piped water group for different diseases were, typhoid 1.1% and 0.7%, bacillary dysentery 2.7% and 2.2%, and diarrhea 6.1% and 5.1%, respectively.