Water and sanitation "most neglected public health danger".Between February and June, a cholera outbreak in the southern African country of Angola sickened 43,000 people and claimed more than 1,600 lives, according to a June New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times article. The culprit: inadequate access to clean water and sanitation. Cholera and other diseases that are spread through human contact with contaminated water are responsible for up to 80 percent of all illnesses and deaths in the developing world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). David Douglas, president of the nonprofit group Water Advocates, has called water and sanitation "the most neglected public health danger in the world." Every month, water-related diseases, which also include typhoid typhoid or typhoid fever Acute infectious disease resembling typhus (and distinguished from it only in the 19th century). Salmonella typhi, usually ingested in food or water, multiplies in the intestinal wall and then enters the bloodstream, causing , ringworm ringworm or tinea (tĭn`ēə), superficial eruption of the skin caused by a fungus, chiefly Microsporum, Trichophyton, or Epidermophyton. , and dengue fever dengue fever (dĕng`gē, –gā), acute infectious disease caused by four closely related viruses and transmitted by the bite of the Aedes mosquito; it is also known as breakbone fever and bone-crusher disease. , kill more people than the estimated 250,000 lost in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. More than 1.1 billion people worldwide, or one-sixth of the global population, do not have access to safe drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. , and nearly 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation, according to the WHO. While the share of people worldwide with access to improved sanitation facilities increased from 49 percent in 1990 to 58 percent in 2002, much more needs to be done to achieve the internationally agreed goals on water and sanitation by 2015. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Because many water-related diseases are preventable, even small efforts can go a long way. Water Aid, an international charity dedicated to improving access to water and sanitation for the world's poorest people, estimates the cost of providing safe water, adequate sanitation, and hygiene training at just $25 a head. And an initially small-scale Carter Center project in Ethiopia aimed at reducing the rate of blindness-inducing trachoma trachoma (trəkō`mə), infection of the mucous membrane of the eyelids caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. Trachoma infects more than 150 million people worldwide. , a disease spread through inadequate sanitation, has resulted in the construction of more than 89,000 latrines. |
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