Water Related Diseases in Adamawa Region, Cameroon: A Prospective and Retrospective Case Study

Water related disease is defined as any significant or widespread adverse effects on human health, such as death, disability, illness or disorders, caused directly or indirectly by the condition, or changes in the quantity or quality of any water. This crossectional and analytical study, carried out from July to December 2019 at the Ngaoundere Regional Hospital and Protestant Hospital aimed to determine the prevalence of water related diseases in the Vina Division. Retrospective data of patients records covered the period of five years (2014 to 2018) were analyzed in order to identify common water related diseases in the study area. Document review technique was adopted in this study; outpatients/inpatients registers were reviewed and information on socio-demographic characteristics of each individual patient were collected. Also, the bacteriological characterization of stool samples collected from patients was done to identify the most frequent bacteria responsible for water related disease in the area, followed by an antibacterial susceptibility testing of some isolated bacteria using standard methods. Results show that, out of 153073 patients recorded from 2014 to 2019, 63750 were clinically diagnosed for water related diseases, giving a prevalence of 41%. Overall, typhoid fever and malaria were the most prevailing water related diseases confirmed clinically with a prevalence of 43%. Parasitic infections were the least prevailing (3.7%). The study revealed that, females was more prone to water related cases than males. Bacteria were more sensitive to streptomycin and resistant to amoxicillin. This study shows that water related diseases are a major health problem in the Vina Division. Routinely monitoring of drinking water sources is recommended to the different users in order to limit the spread of water related diseases.