Outbreaks

Lower photo credit: CDC/Margaret Williams We continue to write about U.S. waterborne disease caused by Legionella bacteria and their management in building water systems because of their unrelenting public health significance. Legionnaires’ disease first made headlines following the 1976 American Legion conference in Philadelphia. That infamous outbreak included 182 cases of severe pneumonia and 29... Read More »

It’s been over a year since we last wrote about New Zealand’s largest waterborne disease outbreak. In August 2016, following heavy winter rains, an estimated 5,500 of 14,000 residents of Havelock North fell ill, with potentially up to 4 deaths, after drinking intentionally untreated groundwater from a community well contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria. A farm... Read More »

Every day, over 50,000 community water systems serve treated (finished) drinking water to over 300 million Americans, while almost 45 million rely on private wells for some or all of their water. The availability of safe drinking water is vital to public health, but contamination can occur and treatment, storage, and distribution systems can fail.... Read More »

In August 2016, more than one-third of the 14,000 residents of the community of Havelock North in New Zealand were sickened with gastrointestinal illness after drinking untreated groundwater contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria. It was New Zealand’s largest drinking water outbreak in recorded history. Although accounts vary, the outbreak has been linked to the deaths of... Read More »

Much has been written about Flint, Michigan’s lead-contaminated drinking water, but we should not overlook another health risk associated with Flint in the recent past, and that is the possibility of Legionella bacteria in the city’s drinking water.  The unchecked corrosivity of Flint’s drinking water may have led to more than one serious water quality... Read More »