Huge Water Shortage Crisis of 2018 in Iran and Its Suspected Relationship with the Three Recent Infectious Diseases Outbreaks

As we know, during spring and summer of 2018, Iran had three unexpected outbreaks over the last decade; so far, there have been three separate outbreaks. At the first month of spring, a microbial outbreak occurred in Sepidan, Southern Iran and about 500 people became infected with coliform bacteria due to water contamination. A few later, a viral outbreak was happened by Norovirus in Kelardasht, Northern Iran due to water contamination which affected about 500 inhabitants of that area. In late June, another microbial outbreak occurred in Ramhormoz, Southwestern Iran, and about 400 people were affected by drinking water contaminated with Escherichia coli. In general, disinfecting drinking water is one of the most important strategies in control and prevention programs for water-borne diseases. In Iran, all three recent outbreaks in 2018 were directly related to drinking contaminated and non-chlorinated water. Accordingly, it is recommended more researches in order to reduce the risk of water-borne infectious diseases in such situation in Iran.