Skip to main content

This article estimates the disease burden from water, sanitation, and hygiene at the global level taking into account various disease outcomes, principally diarrhoeal diseases.

TitleEstimating the burden of disease from water, sanitation, and hygiene at a global level
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2002
AuthorsPruess, A, Kay, D, Fewtrell, L, Bartram, J
Paginationp. 537-542 : 3 fig., 6 tab.
Date Published2002-05-01
Keywordsancylostomiasis, ascariasis, diarrhoeal diseases, health impact, international level, literature reviews, mortality, sanitation, schistosomiasis, sdihyg, trachoma, trichuriasis, water supply, water-related diseases
Abstract

This article estimates the disease burden from water, sanitation, and hygiene at the global level taking into account various disease outcomes, principally diarrhoeal diseases. The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) combines the burden from death and disability in a single index and permits the comparison of the burden from water, sanitation, and hygiene with the burden from other risk factors or diseases. The world's population was divided into typical exposure scenarios for 14 geographical regions. These scenarios were then matched with relative risk information obtained mainly from intervention studies. The disease burden from water, sanitation, and hygiene was estimated to be 4.0% of all deaths and 5.7% of the total disease burden (in DALYs) occurring worldwide, taking into account diarrhoeal diseases, schistosomiasis, trachoma, ascariasis, trichuriasis, and hookworm disease. Because these estimates were mainly based on intervention studies, this burden is largely preventable. Other water- and sanitation-related diseases remain to be evaluated. This preliminary estimation of the global disease burden caused by water, sanitation, and hygiene provides a basic model that could be further refined for national or regional assessments. This significant and avoidable burden suggests that it should be a priority for public health policy. (authors' abstract)

Notes20 ref.
Custom 1203.1

Disclaimer

The copyright of the documents on this site remains with the original publishers. The documents may therefore not be redistributed commercially without the permission of the original publishers.

Back to
the top