ABSTRACT
Water as a route of disease transmission has been well established for over a hundred years. Documented waterborne outbreaks usually occur when there has been an obvious and significant contamination of a water supply. Risk assessment is an approach that allows the hazards to be defined in a more quantitative fashion. Risk assessment has been used for some time to evaluate risks associated from chemicals in our water supply, but has only recently been attempted for microorganisms. Risk assessment involves four basic steps: hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. Enteric viruses have been known for some time to have a negative impact on human health, resulting in serious illness and sometimes death. Microbial risk assessment is relatively new and there are many issues which need to be considered to better refine the risk analysis.
