Water- and excreta-related diseases: Unitary environmental classification

A unitary environmental classification of water- and excreta-related commun icable diseases is presented, which comprises seven categories: Feco-oral w aterborne and water-washed diseases; non-feco-oral water-washed (skin and e ye) diseases; geohelminthiases; taeniases; water-based diseases (bacterial and fungal, as well as helminthic); insect-vector diseases; and rodent-vect or diseases. The global, burden of some of these diseases in 1990 is review ed. Water- and excreta-related diseases were responsible for 2,700,000 deat hs in that year (5.3% of all deaths) and for the loss of 93,200,000 disabil ity-adjusted life years (6.8% of all DALYs). Almost all these deaths and lo ss of DALYs occurred in developing countries (99.9 and 99.8%, respectively) .