Question

Name some water borne diseases.

Answer 1

Hint: These types of diseases are caused by pathogenic microbes spread through contaminated water which further leads to serious illness. According to the reports of the World Health Organisation, these diseases cause nearly 1.8 million human deaths, especially children, annually.

Complete Step by Step answer: The main cause of water-borne diseases are unhygienic or contaminated water. The different types of water-borne diseases are bacterial diseases, protozoan diseases and vector-borne diseases related to water. These diseases are further divided into different types.
1. Bacterial diseases:
- Typhoid is caused by Salmonella Typhi. Its mode of spreading is contaminated water, milk, food, unwashed vegetables and flies. The symptoms of typhoid are continuous fever which increases day by day, body ache, constipation and headache.
- Cholera is caused by Vibrio cholerae. Its mode of spreading is both water and food which is contaminated by the bacteria from stools of a cholera patient. The symptoms of cholera are painless diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea or watery diarrhoea.
2. Protozoan diseases:
- Amoebic dysentery is caused by Entamoeba histolytica. Its mode of spreading is ingestion of cysts present in both water and food. The symptoms are abdominal discomfort, diarrhoea or bloody stools.
- Guinea worm is caused by Dracunculus medinensis. Its mode of spreading is contaminated or unfiltered water. The symptoms of such a disease are allergies and aches or blisters near the ankle.
3. Vector-borne diseases related to water:
- Malaria is caused by plasmodium. It is transmitted by female anopheles mosquitoes. The symptoms are chills, shivering and sweating. These symptoms occur generally after a few weeks after being bitten.
- Dengue is caused by Barbo-virus. It is transmitted by Aedes aegypti, also known as the yellow fever mosquito. The major symptoms are sudden onset of moderately high fever, extreme joint pain, intense pain behind eyes.

Note: According to the World Health Organisation 80 percent of the diseases that occur worldwide are water-borne diseases. In India, more than 1 lakh people get affected by these diseases every year.