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Notice to Readers: National Drinking Water Week --- May 4--10, 2008
This year marks the 100th anniversary of one of the most significant public health advances in U.S. history,
the disinfection of drinking water. To highlight the importance of safe tap water and the need to reinvest in
water infrastructure, the American Water Works Association and an alliance of other organizations are sponsoring
National Drinking Water Week (1).
Safe drinking water is one of the most valuable resources of the United States. During the past century,
many improvements in the health of the U.S. population, such as preventing tooth decay through community
fluoridation and controlling infectious diseases, can be attributed to improvements in drinking water quality
(2). Disinfection has played a critical role in the provision of safe drinking water in the United States since 1908
(3). During 1900--1920, the incidence of typhoid fever in the United States decreased substantially, from 100.0 to 33.8 cases per
100,000 population (4,5). By 2006, incidence of
typhoid fever had decreased to 0.1 per 100,000 population (only 353
cases), and approximately 75% of these cases occurred among persons returning from international travel
(6,7). This decrease in waterborne illness can be credited to advances in public health, including implementation of drinking water
disinfection in community water systems.
The United States has one of the safest public water supplies in the world. Nonetheless, an estimated 4--33
million cases of gastrointestinal illness associated with public drinking water systems occur annually in the United States
(8). These estimates do not include illnesses that occur in the estimated 45 million persons served by small
or individual water systems (9) or illnesses other than gastrointestinal illness. The continued occurrence of drinking
water--associated disease highlights the importance of maintaining and improving the nation's water infrastructure.
Haas CN. Disinfection. In: American Water Works Association. Water quality and treatment: a handbook of community water supplies. 5th
ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 1999:14.22--14.30.
US Census Bureau. Annual estimates of the population for the United States, regions, and states and for Puerto Rico: April 1, 2000 to July 1,
2007 (NST-EST2007-01). Available at
http://www.census.gov/popest/states/NST-ann-est.html.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are
provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
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