Thalassogenic Infectious Diseases Caused byWastewater Pollution of the Marine Environment: An Estimate of the Worldwide Occurrence

Most cultures viewrecreation at the seashore and ocean bathing, called at times thallasotherapy, as a positive and wholesome health experience. However, there has been a degree of historical awareness, going back some 100 years, based on medical reports and studies, of the potential human health problems associated with sea bathing and eating raw shellfish harvested from marine coastal waters contaminated with urban wastewater discharges (Soper, 1905; Mair, 1909; Brooks, 1916; Stiles, 1912; Bundersen, 1925; Mosley, 1974; Shuval, 1986, 1988, 1999).