DISEASE TRANSMISSION BY CONTAMINATED WATER - Environmental Engineering: Prevention and Response to Water-,Food-,Soil-,And Air-Borne Disease and Illness - page 73

FIGURE 1.4 Flow diagram depicting the incremental steps in the investigation of a
waterborne outbreak. Source: P. R. Hunter, Waterborne Disease-Epidemiology and Ecol-
ogy, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1997 .
Hunter 125 cautions that many variables contribute to the inefficiency of iden-
tifying the existence of a waterborne disease, including difficulty in assem-
bling patient data, proper diagnosis and laboratory testing for etiologic agents
of prospective diseases, and underestimates of the number of afflicted people.
For these and other reasons, much time and effort can be lost between the onset
of illness in the population and the resolution of an outbreak.
Confirmation A redoubling of the effort on the part of authorities to sub-
stantiate from all information received that, indeed, an outbreak has occurred.
This will involve a review of physician and laboratory records and ensuring that
proper reporting of data to public health bureaus has taken place.