Affiliation:
1. Hydrological Research Centre, P.O Box 4110, Yaounde, Cameroon E-mail: akoandrew@yahoo.com; gloriatakem@yahoo.com
2. National Advanced School of Public works, P.O Box 510, Yaounde, Cameroon E-mail: gnkeng@yahoo.com
Abstract
The monthly occurrence and mean age distribution of water-borne diseases in the Douala 4th District, Cameroon (1995–2006) were studied and probable causes of diseases spread were established. Diseases of interest included gastroenteritis, amoebic dysentery, typhoid fever and cholera. Water-borne disease occurrence was observed to follow a seasonal pattern with peaks occurring between the months of January and May followed by drops between June and October and rose again from November. Children below 5 years were found to be more vulnerable to diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, amoebic dysentery while persons between 15–44 years were more vulnerable to typhoid and cholera. Physico-chemically, water samples had turbidities varying between 5.5–86 NTU, pH values between 4.2 and 7.1 and zero residual chlorine. Bacteriological analysis showed that the total coliform count was averagely 74/100 ml, the faecal colform count was 43/100 ml and the faecal streptococci count was 27/100 ml. Lack of access to potable water, absence of sanitation facilities and environmental factors could be advanced as the probable causes of water-borne disease spread.
Subject
Water Science and Technology,Environmental Engineering
Cited by
28 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献