Safe Drinking Water is Essential: Diseases Caused by Defective Sanitation
Human and Animal WasteDiseases Caused by Defective Sanitation
Some diseases, such as hookworm, are the direct result of poor sanitation. They may be contracted by contact with contaminated soil, which is polluted by human feces in locales where no proper means of waste disposal exist.
Humans are infected with hookworm parasites by direct contact, such as walking barefoot, in soil that contains human feces.
Hookworm larvae exist in soil and penetrate human skin to make their way into the small intestine. Once in the intestine the worms grow to adult size and produce thousands of eggs, which are passed in stool to begin their life cycle anew.
A minor hookworm infection may have no symptoms but others are signaled by itching and rash. The illness often causes diarrhea or cramps but it can become dangerous for children, pregnant women, and those who are ill or malnourished. These people may develop anemia, protein deficiency, and retarded growth.
This largely tropical disease effects about one billion people—one in every six on earth.
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- Hookworm infections are caused by poor sanitation and direct contact with contaminated soil.
- ©Dr. Mae Melvin/CDC
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