Global Waterborne Parasites: One Health Climate Threat
Received: 04-Nov-2025 / Manuscript No. awbd-25-174404 / Editor assigned: 06-Nov-2025 / PreQC No. awbd-25-174404 (PQ) / Reviewed: 20-Nov-2025 / QC No. awbd-25-174404 / Revised: 25-Nov-2025 / Manuscript No. awbd-25-174404 (R) / Accepted Date: 02-Dec-2025 / Published Date: 02-Dec-2025
Abstract
Waterborne parasitic diseases pose a major global health challenge, significantly intensified by climate change, environmental degradation, and human activities. Research highlights the increased spread and emergence of pathogens like Cryptosporidium and Giardia due to these factors. Ongoing challenges in detection and treatment underscore the critical need for advanced diagnostics, effective water purification, and robust surveillance. Emphasizing disparities in developing countries, integrated One Health approaches are essential. This requires international collaboration and sustainable interventions to ensure safe water and protect public health against these pervasive threats.
Keywords
Waterborne parasites; Climate change; Global health; Cryptosporidium; Giardia; Water quality; Detection; Treatment; One Health; Environmental factors; Public health
Introduction
This paper lays out how climate change directly impacts the spread and emergence of waterborne parasitic diseases. Specifically, it explains that altered precipitation patterns, rising temperatures, and extreme weather events create concerning new pathways for parasites to infect both humans and animals, highlighting a critical need for adaptive public health strategies [1].
This review delves into Cryptosporidium and Giardia, two widespread waterborne parasites. The review thoroughly discusses their global prevalence, diverse transmission routes, and the significant public health challenges these pathogens pose, thereby emphasizing the paramount importance of robust water quality monitoring and effective treatment measures to prevent widespread outbreaks [2].
This article addresses the ongoing challenges in detecting and treating waterborne parasites. It highlights current advancements in diagnostic methods and water purification technologies, further underscoring the critical and ongoing need for improved surveillance mechanisms and innovative solutions to effectively safeguard public health against these pervasive and persistent threats [3].
This paper investigates how environmental factors, like water quality, sanitation infrastructure, and climate variables, profoundly influence the epidemiology of waterborne parasitic infections. This research clearly stresses the profound interconnectedness of environmental health and human disease, thereby strongly advocating for integrated and comprehensive approaches to disease prevention and control [4].
This article positions waterborne parasitic diseases as a major global health challenge, especially when considered alongside climate change impacts. It discusses in detail how various environmental shifts exacerbate the disease burden on a global scale and calls for stronger international collaboration and the implementation of sustainable interventions to effectively mitigate these increasing threats [5].
This paper focuses on the particular burden of waterborne parasites in developing countries. It details the acute challenges related to inadequate sanitation, limited access to clean water resources, and weak public health infrastructure, proposing targeted interventions and significant policy changes specifically designed to address these pressing disparities and improve outcomes [6].
This article advocates for a One Health approach to combat waterborne parasites, emphasizing the interdependence of human, animal, and environmental health. It highlights how integrated surveillance, advanced diagnostics, and robust intervention strategies implemented across multiple sectors are absolutely essential for effective disease control and prevention efforts globally [7].
This review explores how global warming and human activities accelerate the spread of waterborne parasitic infections. It outlines specific mechanisms through which environmental degradation and pervasive climate change create increasingly favorable conditions for parasite transmission, urging for proactive and comprehensive measures to diligently safeguard vital water resources [8].
This scoping review provides a broad overview of both emerging and re-emerging waterborne parasitic diseases. It synthesizes current knowledge regarding their epidemiology, significant risk factors, and broader public health implications, effectively highlighting critical gaps in existing research and the urgent need for comprehensive and robust surveillance systems [9].
This review comprehensively covers the occurrence, detection methods, and removal strategies for waterborne parasitic protozoa in drinking water. Crucially, it underscores the ongoing challenge of ensuring safe drinking water for all and critically evaluates current technologies, pointing towards specific areas needing further innovation and development [10].
Description
Waterborne parasitic diseases represent a significant and escalating global health challenge, one that is substantially amplified by the far-reaching impacts of climate change. Pertinent research systematically details how climate change directly influences the spread and emergence of these insidious diseases, noting that altered precipitation patterns, rising global temperatures, and an increase in extreme weather events collectively forge novel and concerning pathways for parasites to infect both human and animal populations [1]. These pronounced environmental shifts do not merely alter disease dynamics but actively exacerbate the overall global disease burden, leading to urgent calls for stronger international collaboration and the implementation of sustainable interventions to effectively mitigate these increasing and pervasive threats [5]. Further studies reveal that global warming accelerates the dissemination of waterborne parasitic infections by creating increasingly favorable environmental conditions for parasite transmission, thereby stressing the critical necessity for proactive and comprehensive measures aimed at diligently safeguarding vital water resources worldwide [8].
Beyond direct climatic impacts, various human-induced environmental alterations also play a crucial role in disease spread. Diverse anthropogenic activities conjointly accelerate the presence of waterborne parasites through widespread environmental degradation [8]. Moreover, fundamental environmental factors, including the quality of available water, the robustness of sanitation infrastructure, and other intricate climate variables, are shown to profoundly shape the epidemiology of waterborne parasitic infections. This intricate relationship unequivocally underscores the critical interconnectedness of environmental health with human disease outcomes, which in turn necessitates truly integrated and multi-faceted approaches to disease prevention and control [4].
Among the broad spectrum of waterborne parasites that threaten public health, Cryptosporidium and Giardia emerge as two particularly widespread and concerning pathogens globally. A dedicated review comprehensively discusses their extensive global prevalence, diverse and complex transmission routes, and the significant public health challenges they consistently pose. This detailed examination underscores the paramount importance of robust water quality monitoring and effective treatment methodologies as essential components for preventing widespread outbreaks [2]. In a broader context, a comprehensive scoping review offers a valuable overview of both emerging and re-emerging waterborne parasitic diseases. This review synthesizes current scientific knowledge regarding their epidemiology, identifies key risk factors contributing to their spread, and analyzes their far-reaching public health implications. In doing so, it effectively highlights critical gaps in existing research and emphasizes the urgent need for comprehensive and coordinated surveillance systems to accurately track these evolving and persistent threats [9].
Effectively combating waterborne parasites inherently involves confronting persistent challenges in their accurate detection and subsequent effective treatment. Current advances in diagnostic methods, which allow for more rapid and precise identification, and improvements in water purification technologies are consistently highlighted as crucial steps forward. These developments emphasize the continuous and critical need for enhanced surveillance mechanisms and the development of innovative solutions to adequately protect public health from these pervasive and adaptable threats [3]. With a specific focus on waterborne parasitic protozoa, another comprehensive review delves into their occurrence across various environments, evaluates different detection methods currently employed, and assesses available removal strategies applicable to drinking water systems. This critical assessment unequivocally stresses the persistent and ongoing challenge of guaranteeing safe drinking water for all communities. It further critically evaluates the efficacy of current technologies, pointing towards specific areas where further innovation, research, and development are not only beneficial but absolutely vital to advance public health safety [10].
The burden imposed by waterborne parasites is found to be particularly acute and pronounced in developing countries, where significant systemic challenges persist. These challenges notably include inadequate sanitation infrastructure, severely limited access to clean and safe water resources, and often weak or underdeveloped public health infrastructure. To effectively address these profound disparities and alleviate the health burden, targeted interventions and substantial policy changes are urgently proposed and advocated [6]. A highly effective and increasingly recognized strategy to comprehensively combat waterborne parasites involves adopting a holistic One Health approach. This interdisciplinary framework fundamentally emphasizes the intricate interdependence of human, animal, and environmental health, recognizing that these domains are inextricably linked. The One Health approach particularly highlights how integrated surveillance systems, advanced diagnostics capabilities, and robust intervention strategies implemented collaboratively across multiple sectors are absolutely essential for achieving truly effective disease control and prevention efforts on a global scale [7]. This broad and inclusive perspective aligns seamlessly with the understanding that various environmental factors intricately influence the epidemiology of these infections, thereby unequivocally necessitating a coordinated, cross-disciplinary effort for sustainable prevention and long-term public health security [4].
Conclusion
Waterborne parasitic diseases represent a significant and escalating global health challenge, profoundly exacerbated by the pervasive impacts of climate change and human activities. Altered precipitation patterns, rising temperatures, and environmental degradation create new pathways for parasite transmission, affecting both humans and animals [1, 5, 8]. Specific widespread pathogens like Cryptosporidium and Giardia contribute significantly to this burden, alongside a range of emerging and re-emerging parasitic diseases, necessitating robust water quality monitoring and comprehensive surveillance systems globally [2, 9]. Challenges in detection and treatment persist, though advancements in diagnostic methods and water purification technologies offer promising solutions [3, 10]. However, ensuring safe drinking water remains an ongoing struggle, especially given the occurrence of parasitic protozoa in water supplies [10]. The issue is particularly acute in developing countries, where inadequate sanitation, limited access to clean water, and weak public health infrastructure intensify the problem [6]. This interconnectedness of environmental health and human disease calls for integrated approaches to prevention [4]. A One Health approach, emphasizing the interdependence of human, animal, and environmental well-being, is advocated for effective disease control through integrated surveillance, diagnostics, and cross-sectoral interventions [7]. Ultimately, addressing waterborne parasites requires a multifaceted strategy combining environmental health, technological innovation, and international collaboration to safeguard public health against these pervasive threats.
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Citation: Adams L (2025) Global Waterborne Parasites: One Health Climate Threat. awbd 14: 328.
Copyright: 漏 2025 Lillian Adams This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricteduse, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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