Explore Water-related Diseases, Contaminants, and Injuries

Many illnesses, contaminants, and injuries can be water, sanitation, or hygiene-related. Waterborne diseases are caused by organisms that are directly spread through water. For example, Cryptosporidium can be spread by swallowing contaminated water that results in diarrheal illness. Water-related illnesses can be acquired due to a lack of water for good hygiene, lack of sanitation, or increasing insect populations that breed in water and then spread disease. Clean water, improved hygiene and proper sanitation facilities prevent diseases from occurring in communities all over the world. It is important to know how these diseases and contaminants affect you, where they are found, and how you can reduce your chance of getting ill or suffering injury. This information will allow you to make informed decisions about your water, hygiene, and sanitation-related activities. There are three ways to access information on this site and learn more about waterborne and water-related diseases. You can explore the site by the alphabetic name of the organism, contaminant, or injury, by the primary symptom of the illness, or by the type of disease/contaminant/injury.

• Alphabetical index of water-related diseases, contaminants and injuries
• Primary symptom/illness
• Type of disease/contaminant/injury (bacterial, parasitic, viral, chemical, other)