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WATER SUPPLY AND WATER RESOURCES DIVISION'S RESPONSE TO WATERBORNE DISEASE OUTBREAKS
Citation:
Fox*, K R. WATER SUPPLY AND WATER RESOURCES DIVISION'S RESPONSE TO WATERBORNE DISEASE OUTBREAKS. Presented at Regional/ORD Training Workshop on Emerging Issues Associated with Environmental Pathogens, Fort Meade, MD, 9/5-7/2001.
Description:
The WSWRD in NRMRL/ORD has had a successful collaborative relationship with the Cetners for Disease Control & Prevention (CDCP) for over twenty years. When invited, EPA has supplied technical assistance and advice on traking causative events, evaluation of drinking water problems, and what needed to be done to make sure that the drinking water was safe to consume. These requests for assistance have come from CDCP, EPA Regional Offices, States, Municipalities and foreign countries. The most publicized recent waterborne disease outbreak was the Cryptosporidium event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Another well publicized drinking water problem that WSWRD assisted with was the boil water orders in Washington, DC. WSWRD has provided on-site technical assistance in several states in the US and in Canad, Mexico, Peru, and England. There have been several recent E. coli outbreaks (Washington County Fair, NY; Walkerton, Ontario, Canada; Medina County Fair, OH; Wading Pool, Atlanta, GA) that WSWRD has provided technical assistance via telephone, electronic messaging and laboratory support. This talk will focus on the procedures that WSWRD used in the investigation of these disease outbreaks.