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An illness due to infection with bacteria contaminating the water supply. Waterborne bacterial diseases cause a wide range of syndromes including: acute dehydrating diarrhea (cholera), prolonged febrile illness with abdominal symptoms (typhoid fever), acute bloody diarrhea (dysentery), and chronic diarrhea (Brainerd diarrhea). Common agents causing waterborne diseases include the following bacteria: Waterborne bacterial infections account for 2-3…

A nonspecific term meaning the accumulation of excess fluids in body tissues, medically known as edema. Edema can result from many different disease processes, including but not limited to diseases of the heart and circulation and kidney disease. Water retention is also used to describe the symptoms of feeling bloated or experiencing a small weight gain due to physiologic shifts…

Known medically as “hydrocephalus”, this is an abnormal buildup of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the ventricles of the brain. The fluid is often under increased pressure and can compress and damage the brain. Hydrocephalus can arise before birth or any time afterward. It may be due to many causes including a birth defect, hemorrhage into the brain, infection, meningitis, tumor, or head injury.…

A lowered blood concentration of sodium (see hyponatremia). The term “water intoxication” is generally used to refer to hyponatremia that occurs due to the consumption of excess water without adequate replacement of sodium, as may happen during strenuous exercise.

A blister with clear watery contents that is not purulent (does not contain pus) and is not sanguineous (does not contain blood). A blister is medically termed a vesicle. One that is more than 5 mm in diameter with thin walls and is full of watery fluid is called a bulla. The word “blister” entered English in the 14th century.…

1. A tasteless odorless colorless liquid with the chemical formula H2O.2. The liquid which forms rain, rivers, and the sea and makes up a large part of the bodies of most organisms, including humans.3. The amniotic fluid, as in the bag of waters.4. The cerebrospinal fluid, especially under increased pressure, as in water on the brain.

1. Gradual loss (for example, of weight), deterioration, emaciation. As in a wasting disease. 2. Excessive depletion. As in salt wasting, the excessive loss of salt.

A local growth of the outer layer of the skin (the epidermis) caused by a virus. The virus of warts (a papillomavirus) is transmitted by contact. The contact can be with a wart on someone else or one on oneself (autoinoculation). Warts that occur on the hands or top of the feet are called “common warts.” A wart…

An anticoagulant drug (brand names: Coumarin, Panwarfin, Sofarin) taken to prevent the blood from clotting and to treat blood clots and overly thick blood. Warfarin is also used to reduce the risk of clots causing strokes or heart attacks. Warfarin works by suppressing the production of some clotting factors (interfering with prothrombin activation) and thereby inhibiting the clotting of blood. Warfarin…

1. Having exotropia — divergent strabismus — in which the eyes turn outward away from the nose. The Japanese term is ron-pari, as one eye is looking at Rondon (London) and the other is looking at Pari (Paris). 2. Having a dense white opacity (leukoma) of the cornea. 3. Having large staring eyes, like those of certain fish such as the…