Water- and Excreta-Related Diseases: Unitary Environmental Classification

A unitary environmental classification of water- and excreta-related communicable diseases is presented, which comprises seven categories: Feco-oral waterborne and water-washed diseases; non-feco-oral water-washed (skin and eye) diseases; geohelminthiases; taeniases; water-based diseases (bacterial and fungal, as well as helminthic); insect-vector diseases; and rodent-vector diseases. The global burden of some of these diseases in 1990 is reviewed. Water- and excreta-related diseases were responsible for 2,700,000 deaths in that year (5.3% of all deaths) and for the loss of 93,200,000 disability-adjusted life years (6.8% of all DALYs). Almost all these deaths and loss of DALYs occurred in developing countries (99.9 and 99.8%, respectively).