Drinking water linked to 214 outbreaks in 5 years: CDC

The CDC found 214 outbreaks and 88 deaths over five years were associated with drinking water.

The surveillance summary, released March 14, used NORS data, into which public health departments voluntarily enter outbreak information, submitted from 2015 to 2020. In five years, 28 states voluntarily reported 214 outbreaks associated with drinking water and 454 cited drinking water as a contributing factor.

Here are six other findings:

1. Of reported outbreaks, 87% were biofilm associated, 11% enteric illness associated, 1% unknown and less than 1% chemical or toxin.
   
   
2. Drinking water-associated outbreaks resulted in at least 2,140 cases of illness, 563 hospitalizations and 88 deaths.
   
   
3. About 80% of outbreaks were linked to water from public water systems, 10% to unknown water systems, 8% to individual or private systems, 0.9% to other systems and 0.5% to unreported sources.
   
   
4. Norovirus, Shigella and Campylobacter were the three most common enteric illness-associated pathogens, making up about 94% of cases and were most likely to come from wells (93%).
   
   
5. Legionella made up about 98% of biofilm-related outbreaks with a general increase in outbreaks over the study period (14 in 2015 compared to 18 in 2020).
   
   
6. Legionella-associated outbreaks resulted in 37% of all illnesses, 97% of hospitalizations and 98% of all deaths. It also comprised 92% of public water system outbreaks.