Microbial contamination of drinking water post-municipal treatment is difficult to predict as a risk factor for human health. One method to reduce morbidity or mortality from unpredictable exposures is through point-of-use (POU) treatment devices. The goal of this project was to assess the cost-benefit of POU water treatment at the tap in terms of protection from microbes in drinking water. This project estimated: (1) incidence of acute illness (AI), sequela, and mortality associated with waterborne pathogens; (2) illness reduction rates from using POU devices; and (3) healthcare cost reductions associated with POU devices. Infection rates and costs associated with 10 of the most common waterborne pathogens were identified and used to calculate national annual costs. We estimated 9M AI, 0.6M sequela, and 1,400 mortality cases that occur annually in the USA from these pathogens. The greatest cost-benefit was seen when considering the totality of disease burden reduction (AI, sequela, and mortality) including all pathogens at a national level and applying a 35% infection reduction, resulting in a total cost per averted disease case of $1,815. This study suggests that it is cost-beneficial to prevent water-related illness using POU devices.

市政后饮用水中的微生物污染很难预测为人类健康的危险因素。减少不可预测的暴露引起的发病率或死亡率的一种方法是通过使用点（POU）处理设备。该项目的目标是从防止饮用水中微生物的角度评估自来水POU水处理的成本效益。该项目估计：（1）与水传播病原体有关的急性疾病（AI），后遗症和死亡率；（2）使用POU设备减少疾病的发生率；（3）降低与POU设备相关的医疗保健成本。确定了与10种最常见的水生病原体相关的感染率和费用，并将其用于计算国家年度费用。我们估计有900万AI，60万后遗症和1，在美国，每年由这些病原体引起的死亡案例有400例。当考虑到减少疾病负担（AI，后遗症和死亡率）的总和（包括全国范围内的所有病原体）并减少35％的感染时，成本效益最大，因此，每例避免疾病的总成本为1,815美元。这项研究表明，使用POU设备预防与水有关的疾病具有成本效益。