1. Community intervention trial for estimating risk of acute gastrointestinal illness from groundwater-supplied non-disinfected drinking water
- Author
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Mark A. Borchardt, Burney A. Kieke, Susan K. Spencer, Elisabetta Lambertini, Tucker R. Burch, and Frank J. Loge
- Subjects
attributable risk ,disease burden ,groundwater ,public water systems ,viruses ,waterborne disease ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Abstract
By community intervention in 14 non-disinfecting municipal water systems, we quantified sporadic acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) attributable to groundwater. Ultraviolet (UV) disinfection was installed on all supply wells of intervention communities. In control communities, residents continued to drink non-disinfected groundwater. Intervention and control communities switched treatments by moving UV disinfection units at the study midpoint (crossover design). Study participants (n = 1,659) completed weekly health diaries during four 12-week surveillance periods. Water supply wells were analyzed monthly for enteric pathogenic viruses. Using the crossover design, groundwater-borne AGI was not observed. However, virus types and quantity in supply wells changed through the study, suggesting that exposure was not constant. Alternatively, we compared AGI incidence between intervention and control communities within the same surveillance period. During Period 1, norovirus contaminated wells and AGI attributable risk from well water was 19% (95% CI, −4%, 36%) for children
- Published
- 2023
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