メコン流域における水利用と微生物汚染

抄録

Infectious diarrhea related to the polluted water environment, such as cholera and dysentery, is still a severe problem in developing countries. Mekong watershed is one of the regions suffering from outbreaks of waterborne infectious diarrhea. In order to take effective countermeasures against the waterborne infectious diarrhea in Mekong watershed, it is necessary to evaluate the risk of infection based on characteristics of water environment and its utilization. In this study, field surveys were carried out to investigate the water utilization and to analyze the microbial contamination of the water environment in Lao P. D. R, Cambodia and Vietnam. A total of 115 samples were collected from river water, canal water, rain water, well water, bottled water and tap water mainly used as the drinking water. As results, it was found that the samples were frequently contaminated with Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. These bacteria were detected even from the drinking water after boiling due to the cross-contamination with unsanitary containers. And what is worse, norovirus was also detected from some samples of drinking water at the concentration high enough to cause the infection.