Contamination of flood water during the 2011 Thai flood

Dear Sir,

The 2011 Thai flood is a very big natural disaster. Similar to any other flood, the great concern in tropical medicine is on the contamination of flood water. The recent report on microbiological evaluation of flood water during the 2011 Thai flood is very interesting. ^[1] Chaturongkasumrit et al. concluded “several microorganisms were transferred via floodwater to different areas in the central part of Thailand and cross-contaminated between floodwater and water for human consumption. ^[1]” In fact, the problem of water contamination during the flood is very important issue in environmental health. It is a common public health focus during the flood to control of the contamination. Chaturongkasumrit et al. studied on several important bacterial contaminations especially for those bacteria that can induce gastrointestinal problem. Furthermore, a recent report by Thaipadungpanit et al. showed an important concern on contamination of Leptospira spp., which is a deadly pathogen causing leptospirosis. ^[2] The contaminated Leptospira pathogen does not lead to gastrointestinal infection, but the leptospirosis is a severe systemic infection that starts from skin contact to the contaminated water. Nevertheless, during the 2011 flood in Thailand, there is no emerging leptospirosis outbreak. Furthermore, the contamination of noninfectious particles might also be serious, but forgotten. Several industrial areas were sunken into the water during the 2011 flood, and there is still no report on the chemical contamination in water and the health problem relating to contact of the contamination. The aspects related to the chemical pollutants transportation during flood are definitely interesting and worthy of being studied.

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

DOI: 10.4103/1755-6783.145040