Study on drinking-water quality and diarrheal diseases

• Autor(a) principal: Tokaia, Bruno Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Costa, Alexandre Sylvio
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Baiana de Saúde Pública (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://rbsp.sesab.ba.gov.br/index.php/rbsp/article/view/2979
• topic: Diarreia aguda; Qualidade da água; Saneamento básico; doenças; Diarrea aguda; Calidad del agua; Sanidad básica; Acute diarrhea; Water quality; Sanitation

Acute diarrheal disease is one of the most common illnesses worldwide, affecting people of all ages and causing deaths mainly in children. This disease is the second leading cause of death in children from underdeveloped countries due to challenges in accessing drinking water and basic sanitation, indicating a close association between water quantity and quality and the quality of life of human beings. Over recent decades, the number of deaths from diarrhea decreased in Brazil and the world. This work sought to analyze the association between the quality of drinking water and acute diarrheal diseases. For that, a literature review was conducted in the Medline, SciELO, and Lilacs databases for observational studies correlating water quality and basic sanitation with the prevalence of cases of acute diarrhea, as well as for those approaching directions for future actions that help reducing the disease incidence. Most articles show that socioeconomic factor influence the risk of illness, and that investments in basic sanitation show good results for coping with it. Therefore, reducing the incidence of diarrheal diseases requires greater investments and expansion of surveillance actions related to drinking water, according to the standards established in legislation.