Systematic Review of Water-Related Diseases in the Florida Environment

Presenter Information

McKinley Chapman
Amber N. BarnesFollow

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Amber Barnes

Faculty Sponsor College

Brooks College of Health

Faculty Sponsor Department

Public Health

Location

SOARS Virtual Conference

Presentation Website

https://unfsoars.domains.unf.edu/2021/posters/a-systematic-review-of-water-related-diseases-in-the-florida-environment/

Keywords

SOARS (Conference) (2021 : University of North Florida) – Archives; SOARS (Conference) (2021 : University of North Florida) – Posters; University of North Florida -- Students -- Research – Posters; University of North Florida. Office of Undergraduate Research; University of North Florida. Graduate School; College students – Research -- Florida – Jacksonville – Posters; University of North Florida – Undergraduates -- Research – Posters; University of North Florida. Department of Chemistry -- Research – Posters; Honorable Mention Award

Abstract

Honorable Mention Winner

Background: Florida’s environments are suitable reservoirs for many disease-causing microorganisms. Pathogens and toxins in Florida waterways hold the potential to infect vectors, animal and human hosts. Many conditions are reportable to the Florida Department of Health. Our objective in this review was to determine which waterborne, water-based, and water-related pathogenic organisms have been documented in Florida’s environments over the last twenty years. Methods: Nineteen databases were searched using keywords relating to the waterborne, water-based toxins, and water-related vector-borne diseases. Peer-reviewed journal articles were included if written in English, published between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2019, and contained original data on a water-related pathogen of interest within a Florida’s environmental reservoir collected during the same time period. Results: This search resulted in 5,419 articles, after removing duplicates. An initial screening of titles and abstracts reduced the number of articles for full-text review to 474. From these, 67 articles were accepted in the analysis. The common waterborne organism found was Escherichia coli (n= 27) followed by Salmonella, Cryptosporidium (n= 8), and Giardia (n= 6). Water-related vector-borne diseases included West Nile Virus, (n= 6), Eastern Equine Encephalitis (n= 3), St. Louis Encephalitis (n= 1), Zika Virus (n= 1), and Dengue Virus (n= 1). Water-based toxins found included Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning (NSP) toxin Karenia brevis (n= 10), Saxitoxin or Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) toxins (n= 5), and Ciguatera Fish Poisoning toxin Gambierdiscus caribaeus, (n= 1). Pathogens were found in water, air, soil/sediment, sand, food, aquatic vegetation, dry swabs, and mosquito pools. Discussion/conclusion: Many of the waterborne, water-related vector-borne, and water-based toxins and disease of public health and veterinary importance are present in Florida environments. A One Health approach will be imperative to maintaining healthy waterways and shared environments throughout Florida to protect the health of humans, animals, and our ecosystems. Audio Player

Comments

Audio Presentation Transcript:

The Florida environment is composed of various environments and ecosystems, which are suitable reservoirs for many disease causing microorganisms. Florida waterways are home to these microorganisms such as pathogens and toxins, which have the potential to infect vectors, animals, and human hosts. Many of these conditions are reportable to the Florida Department of Health. In this systematic review we determined which waterborne diseases, water-based toxins, and water-related vector-borne organisms have been documented in Florida environments over the last two decades. We searched nineteen databases using keywords that related to water-related toxins and pathogens outlined by the Florida Department of Health’s notifiable disease list. We narrowed our search by selecting only peer-reviewed journal articles which were written in English, published between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2019, and contained original data on our water-related pathogen or toxin of interest. We also made sure the data was collected within a Florida environment. The initial search resulted in 5,419 articles after removing duplicates. After an initial screening of titles and abstracts the number of articles was reduced down to 474. Of these, 67 were accepted to review in the analysis. from these articles, we found that the most common waterborne organism found in the Florida environment was E. coli, followed by Salmonella, Cryptosporidium, and Giardia. Water related vector borne diseases included West Nile Virus, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, St. Louis Encephalitis, Zika virus, and dengue virus. Water based toxins found were Neurotoxic Shellfish Poison, karenia brevis, and saxitoxin or Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning toxins, and ciguatera fish poisoning. These pathogens and toxins were found in water, air, soil and sediment, sand, food, aquatic vegetation, dry swabs, and mosquito pool samples. Many of the waterborne, water-related vector-borne, and water-based toxins and diseases of public health and veterinary importance are present in Florida environments. A One Health approach will be imperative to maintaining healthy waterways and shared environments throughout Florida to protect the health of humans, animals, and our ecosystems. We presented our findings at the International 6th World One Health Congress virtual event in November, 2020, and look forward to submitting our manuscript for submission to a peer reviewed journal.

Rights Statement

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