The coastal environment and human health: microbial indicators, pathogens, sentinels and reservoirs
Name
Polz_Coastal environment.pdf
Size
1.97 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
dc748986925db3065f34182e65dfedf9
Author(s)
Stewart, Jill R.
Gast, Rebecca J.
Fujioka, Roger S.
Solo-Gabriele, Helena M.
Meschke, J. Scott
Amaral-Zettler, Linda A.
del Castillo, Erika
Polz, Martin F.
Collier, Tracy K.
Strom, Mark S.
Date Issued
November 2008
Journal
Environmental Health
Publisher
BioMed Central Ltd.
Citation
Stewart, Jill, Rebecca Gast, Roger Fujioka, Helena Solo-Gabriele, J Scott Meschke, Linda Amaral-Zettler, Erika del Castillo, et al. 2008. The coastal environment and human health: microbial indicators, pathogens, sentinels and reservoirs. Environmental Health 7, no. Suppl 2: S3.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Innovative research relating oceans and human health is advancing our understanding of disease-causing organisms in coastal ecosystems. Novel techniques are elucidating the loading, transport and fate of pathogens in coastal ecosystems, and identifying sources of contamination. This research is facilitating improved risk assessments for seafood consumers and those who use the oceans for recreation. A number of challenges still remain and define future directions of research and public policy. Sample processing and molecular detection techniques need to be advanced to allow rapid and specific identification of microbes of public health concern from complex environmental samples. Water quality standards need to be updated to more accurately reflect health risks and to provide managers with improved tools for decision-making. Greater discrimination of virulent versus harmless microbes is needed to identify environmental reservoirs of pathogens and factors leading to human infections. Investigations must include examination of microbial community dynamics that may be important from a human health perspective. Further research is needed to evaluate the ecology of non-enteric water-transmitted diseases. Sentinels should also be established and monitored, providing early warning of dangers to ecosystem health. Taken together, this effort will provide more reliable information about public health risks associated with beaches and seafood consumption, and how human activities can affect their exposure to disease-causing organisms from the oceans.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-7-S2-S3
