Drinking Water Quality and the Geospatial Distribution of Notified Gastro-Intestinal Infections

GRILC, Eva; GALE, Ivanka; VERŠIC, Aleš; ŽAGAR, Tina; SOCAN, Maja

Mapping the notified cases of AGI in 2010 (Map 1), showed that in the North-Western area (from Kranj to Jesenice) and around Nova Gorica, the South-Eastern and Southern part of the country (especially near Ilirska Bistrica and from Črnomelj in the South, to Brežice in the South-East), there were settlements with a high incidence of AGI. The main driving force behind the differences observed might be that some physicians are keen to notify and others are not. A less plausible explanation is that patients with AGI consult more frequently in one county than in another. Further, the differences in the geographical distribution of food-borne outbreaks in 2010, would clarify the uneven distribution of AGI cases. There were 57 outbreaks reported, caused by enteral pathogens (only one was waterborne) in 2010, which were relatively uniformly distributed throughout the country (the data is not shown) (16) , and which, therefore, cannot explain the difference.