Abstract
BackgroundDespite the amount of awareness created, waterborne disease still poses threat, especially in developing countries. Due to the scarcity of reported data on waterborne parasites, the consumption of unsafe water prolongs. Thus, the occurrences of waterborne parasites from various samples were investigated from one of the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines.MethodsA total of thirty three samples, each consisting of twelve liters, were collected and processed to obtain the sediment. Ten liters of sample each was processed to detect Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. using an immunomagnetic separation method prior to enumeration via fluorescence microscope. Meanwhile, the remaining two liters were cultured to detect Acanthamoeba and Naegleria through microscopy examination and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis.ResultsTwelve samples (36.4%) from river (5), swimming pool (1), pond (3), rain tank (1), and natural lake (2) were positive for Cryptosporidium spp., 17 (45.5%) samples from river (9), pond (2), swimming pool (1), rain tank (1), and natural lake (4) were positive for Giardia spp. while, 13 (33.3%) samples from river (3), swimming pool (2), pond (2), dispenser (1), well (1), tap (2) and natural lake (2) were positive for Acanthamoeba spp. and 5 (18.2%) samples from river (1), natural lake (1), tap (1), dispenser (1) and mineral (1) were Naegleria spp. positive. Physical parameters such as temperature, conductivity, total dissolved solid (TDS), salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and turbidity and chemical parameters such as ammonia, chlorine, fluoride, nitrate and nitrite were also measured. The highest chemical contamination was observed at pond 2. A good correlation was observed between Giardia and nitrite (r = 0.736, p < 0.01) and Giardia and nitrate (r = 0.502, p < 0.01).ConclusionThis study was aimed to create greater awareness of parasitic contamination in the water environment in the Philippines and also to act as a platform of the current scenario for policymakers as water pollution is a key health issue in this region.
Highlights
Despite the amount of awareness created, waterborne disease still poses threat, especially in developing countries
Samples were collected on October 2012 from: a) Suburban - Batangas (Natural lake – 6 samples, well – 1 sample) b) Suburban - Cavite (River 3&4 – 4 samples, pond 2–3 samples, swimming pool 3 – 1 sample, tap – 1 sample, drinking water – 1 sample, rain tank – 1 sample, spring – 1 sample) c) Urban - Manila (River 2 – 3 samples, swimming pool 1&2 – 2 samples, tap – 1 sample, drinking water – 1 sample, tap storage tank – 1 sample) d) Rural - Pampanga (River 1 – 3 samples, pond 1 – 1 sample, tap – 1 samples) Three points were collected for rivers (Figure 1)
Despite the study on the prevalence of protozoan parasites [13], and the finding related to drinking water from uncertain sources or drinking water sourced from a nearby dumpsite [14], waterborne outbreaks have not been reported in the Philippines [15,16]
Summary
Despite the amount of awareness created, waterborne disease still poses threat, especially in developing countries. Due to the scarcity of reported data on waterborne parasites, the consumption of unsafe water prolongs. The occurrences of waterborne parasites from various samples were investigated from one of the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines. As with many other developing countries, the Philippines is facing issues with availability of clean water and this is mainly due to factors such as, growing population, irrigation needs, rapid industrialization and urbanization, in rural areas. Studies and reports on waterborne pathogen occurrence need to be published in order to increase awareness of the public on this issue. To date, only very few new studies had been carried out as an update to Philippines waters, in detecting waterborne parasites. This study was designed to evaluate the entity of problem, if any present, and to fill in the gap of knowledge on selected water bodies in the Philippines
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