Processes for managing pathogens.

Wastewater contains human, animal, and plant pathogens capable of causing viral, bacterial, or parasitic infections. There are several routes whereby sewage pathogens may affect human health, including direct contact, contamination of food crops, zoonoses, and vectors. The range and numbers of pathogens in municipal wastewater vary with the level of endemic disease in the community, discharges from commercial activities, and seasonal factors.

Estimates of the severity of illnesses associated with bathing in marine recreational waters contaminated with domestic sewage.

Background: During the summers of 1989-1992 we conducted four randomized intervention trials at four separate UK bathing locations judged of acceptable quality under current USEPA and EU criteria. The results showed bathers to be at increased risk of gastroenteritis, acute febrile respiratory illness (ICD-9 461-466, 480), ear and eye infections relative to non-bathers. The public health significance of these findings has been questioned based upon the unproven assumption that these illnesses are minor in nature and thus of questionable public health significance.

Marine waters contaminated with domestic sewage: nonenteric illnesses associated with bather exposure in the United Kingdom.

Objectives: This study identified possible dose-response relationships among bathers exposed to marine waters contaminated with domestic sewage and subsequent risk of nonenteric illness.

Methods: Four intervention follow-up studies were conducted within the United Kingdom. Healthy volunteers (n = 1273) were randomized into bather and nonbather groups.