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ENGINEERING CONSIDERATIONS: WATERBORNE DISEASE INVESTIGATIONS
Citation:
Fox*, K R. ENGINEERING CONSIDERATIONS: WATERBORNE DISEASE INVESTIGATIONS. ISBN: 0849312590, Chapter 9, Hunter, P.R., Waite, M., and Ronchi, E. (ed.), Drinking Water & Infectious Disease: Establishing the Links. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
Description:
As part of a disease outbreak investigation involving drinking water, an engineering investigation may be necessary to determine how or why the pathogen of concern was able to get to the consumer. In many of the US outbreaks, the survival of the pathogen was dependent on multiple problems within the soruce water collection system, treatment facilities, or distirbution and storage system. In at least one of the mauor outbreaks in the US, drinking water was implicated, but no evidence or problems were discovered within the water system itself. The engineering investigation is different from a sanitary survey in that the investigation is to identify weaknesses that may have existed in the pst that allowed pathogens to survive. Many of the outbreaks were investigated by re-evaluating historical operational data to identify the weaknesses or lapses in the systems that may have happened. This "late" investigation means that conditions that existed during the outbreak may or may not be present during the investigation. Sampling of water for the etiological agent may or may be successful in that many of these investigations happen after the outbreak has subsided. In some outbreaks, "old" water was collected from stagnant zones in the distribution system and from ice that was mde during the outbreak. This presentation will discuss several techniques that can be used to investigate outbreaks relying on past investigations as examples.