Enteric Pathogens Risk Factors Associated with Household Drinking Water: A Case Study in Ugu District Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, South Africa

Colette Mmapenya Khabo-Mmekoa, Bettina Genthe and Maggy Ndombo Benteke Momba
Additional contact information
Colette Mmapenya Khabo-Mmekoa: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Arcadia Campus, Tshwane University of Technology, 175 Nelson Mandela Avenue, Arcadia, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Bettina Genthe: Water Institute, Department of Microbiology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa
Maggy Ndombo Benteke Momba: Department of Environmental, Water and Earth Sciences, Arcadia Campus, Tshwane University of Technology, 175 Nelson Mandela Avenue, Arcadia, Pretoria 0001, South Africa

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: The occurrence of diarrheal infections depends on the level of water and sanitation services available to households of immunocompromised individuals and children of less than five years old. It is therefore of paramount importance for immunocompromised individuals to be supplied with safe drinking water for better health outcomes. The current study aimed at ascertaining the probability of infection that Escherichia coli , Salmonella typhimurium , Shigella dysenteriae , Vibrio cholerae , and rotavirus might cause to rural dwellers as compared to urban dwellers. Both culture-based and molecular-based methods were used to confirm the presence of target microorganisms in drinking water samples, while Beta-Poisson and exponential models were used to determine the health risk assessment. Results revealed the presence of all targeted organisms in drinking water. The estimated health risks for single ingestion of water for the test pathogens were as follows: 1.6 × 10 −7 for S. typhimurium , 1.79 × 10 −4 for S. dysenteriae , 1.03 × 10 −3 for V. cholerae , 2.2 × 10 −4 for E. coli O157:H7, and 3.73 × 10 −2 for rotavirus. The general quantitative risk assessment undertaken in this study suggests that constant monitoring of household container-stored water supplies is vital as it would assist in early detection of microbial pathogens. Moreover, it will also allow the prompt action to be taken for the protection of public health, particularly for immunocompromised individuals and children who are prone to higher risk of infections.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS; health risk assessment; drinking water quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4431/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4431/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:8:p:4431-:d:788599

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().