Oral

This session will advance the proposition that the global control of waterborne disease will benefit from a re-emphasis on the use of primary prevention strategies. Such strategies would complement disease control programs that currently focus upon the provision of population-based chemotherapy. The primary prevention of waterborne disease is inextricably bound up in the conjoined history of public health and engineering as practiced in the 19th century most notably in the United Kingdom and the United States. The case examples covered in this session will offer a range of waterborne (schistosomiasis), water-washed (neurocysticercosis), and complex pathway (diarrheal disease) diseases in addition to zoonoses. The emphasis will be placed on lessons learned regarding primary prevention strategies. Equal emphasis will be placed on those strategies primarily directed at the human infrastructure (health care providers, at-risk populations) and the physical infrastructure (water play area, provision of accessible potable water). The session will conclude with an overview of the relationship between the integrity and design of drinking water distribution systems and potential impacts on public health.

Session Objectives: 1. Understand the historically close connection between public health and the primary prevention of waterborne disease. Many different disciplines contributed to this. This session will highlight approaches from the engineering skill set. 2. Be able to recognize that current global water borne disease control strategies place great emphasis upon tertiary prevention (large scale chemotherapy) or the pursuit of vaccines. 3. Extrapolate from the session case examples in order to mount interventions or in shaping the development of policy at the level of the nation state or community.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)