Análise da Correlação de Ocorrência da Doença Diarreica Aguda com a Qualidade da Água para Consumo Humano no Município de Vitória-ES Analysis of the Correlation of Diarrhea Disease Occurrence With Drinking-Water Quality in the City of Vitória-ES

Abstract Possible associations between drinking-water quality and the occurrence of diarrhea cases have been rese-arched, using the 2004 Diarrhea Disease Monitoring Program in the city of Vitoria, state of Espirito Santo, Brazil. For water quality analysis, data from the Water Quality Control Program, performed by the Public Su-pply Service, and from the Water Quality Surveillance, performed by the local municipal government, were used. The epidemiological delimitation adopted was the ecological study. Georeferencing tools for the re-presentation of the studied samples and univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were utilized. Statistically significant associations for the occurren-ce of diarrhea with turbidity, total coliform and ther-mo-tolerant parameters were found. The results reveal the need of greater care in the water supply network. However, as diarrhea can be the cause of various disor-ders, actions must be proposed in order to characterize the ailment and define its source of infection, so that the transmission chain can be interrupted. Keywords: Diarrhea; Water Quality; Ecological Study; Linear Regression.