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Water in Relation to the Endemic Diarrheas in Yucatan¹

The observations described indicate that heavily contaminated drinking water is the principal source of intestinal infections in the vicinity of Dzitas and of Chichen Itza. What is true of this region is, probably, equally true for other small Yucatecan communities and for all the Indian villages. Other evidence points unmistakably to drinking water as a very serious source of danger in Merida and in other cities in Yucatan. That there is an extremely high mortality from intestinal infections in Merida has been demonstrated (table 1) by Hoffman (1). Further statistical data will be presented in the Report of our Expedition (2).

That safe municipal water supplies are urgently needed by the cities in Yucatan is beyond question.

It is believed that in the smaller Yucatecan communities and in the Indian villages much could be done to reduce the deathrate and to improve the health if the people could be taught the dangers of contaminated water, the importance of cleanliness of water-containers, and the protection offered by boiling. To prevent the contamination of wells would require a complete change in the habits of the people and an expenditure of effort and of money which could hardly be expected of the general population in the near future.

¹ This work was conducted under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D. C. as part of the program of the "Yucatan Medical Expedition of 1929" which was organized by the Department of Tropical Medicine of the Harvard School of Public Health.