06/13/25 Public Health Education Topic: Waterborne Diseases

Per CDC:

Waterborne disease surveillance provides information that can help prevent future disease and outbreaks while providing important information on how germs, chemicals, or toxins spread, and which types of water are linked to people getting sick.

Waterborne disease outbreak definition

For an event to be defined as a waterborne disease outbreak

• Two or more people must be linked epidemiologically by time, location of exposure to water, and type of illness, and

• This epidemiologic evidence must implicate water as the probable source of illness.

• Environmental evidence implicating water as the source of infection (for example, water samples testing positive for germs) can strengthen evidence in a public health investigation, but the investigation must find an epidemiologic link between the illnesses and water for an event to be considered a waterborne disease outbreak.

What to know

• Swimming is a great activity, but the water can pose risks.

• Learn what you can do to protect yourself and others from swimming-related illnesses and injuries at all type of recreational water venues, like pools, splash pads, and natural bodies of water.

Water-Related or Waterborne Nationally Notifiable Diseases

• Campylobacter

• Cholera

• Cryptosporidiosis

• Cyclosporiasis

• Giardiasis

• Hepatitis A

• Legionellosis

• Malaria*

• Salmonellosis

• Shigellosis

• Typhoid fever

• Vibriosis

• Yellow Fever*

*Vector or insect-borne diseases associated with water

To learn more visit:

About Waterborne Disease Surveillance | Waterborne Disease and Outbreak Surveillance Reporting | CDC

Healthy Swimming | Healthy Swimming | CDC