A Detection of Water-Borne Bacterial and Protozoal Pathogens in Costa Rica, Haiti, Guatemala, and the United States

It is estimated that 663 million people do not have access to clean water. The World Health Organization has emphasized the importance of screening water used for agricultural purposes in order to prevent potential water-borne and food-bone outbreaks. These outbreaks are linked to a variety of pathogens, mainly Gram-negative bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Previous studies have listed multiple pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli and Giardia lamblia as causative agents of water-borne and food-borne related infections. The purpose of this investigation was to detect the presence of the aforementioned microbes in water collected from irrigation points and other municipal sources found in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Haiti, and the USA, and compare our results. We believe that our study will be beneficial for public awareness and future vaccine development of the most prevalent microbes. This analysis is based on molecular biology techniques such as polymerase chain reaction, gel electrophoresis, and direct immunofluorescence microscopy. In addition, another goal of this project was to evaluate the long-term efficacy of newly implemented water filtration systems by screening for pre- or post- bacterial and protozoal pathogens found in water samples. Overall, of the Escherichia coli strains tested (Enteropathogenic/EPEC, Enterohemorrhagic/EHEC, Enteroaggregative/EAEC, and Enterotoxigenic/ETEC), we detected only the EPEC and EHEC strains in our sample pool. In specific, we concluded that 75% of our water samples collected from international and locations were positive for EPEC, and 8% of our samples were positive for EHEC. Regarding Giardia lamblia, we found all samples collected from Costa Rica and the United States positive. Finally, 89% of the researched filters were able to clear all Escherichia coli contaminants, and we do recommend that these filters could be used in lieu or in addition to the bio-sand filtration systems