Bacterial and chemical contamination of drinking waters in some villages in Albania: morbidity from abdominal typhoid, dysentery and viral hepatitis

Hygienic and epidemiological investigations were conducted in 100 villages in order to quantify the relationship between bacterially contaminated drinking water and morbidity from abdominal typhoid, dysentery and viral hepatitis. Villages were divided into three groups: (a) those with bacterially contaminated waters and water borne epidemic outbreaks; (b) those with bacterially contaminated waters and frequent sporadic cases of infections without water borne epidemic outbreaks; and (c) those with non-contaminated waters and relatively few cases of infections. Comparative data on morbidity agree with a series of data in the literature on this relationship and clearly demonstrate the role of bacterially contaminated water in increasing the morbidity from gastrointestinal infections. In many cases, bacterial contamination of groundwater is accompanied by the presence of ammonia and nitrites.