Infectious diseases and field water supply and sanitation among migrant farm workers

An audit for fecal-related symptoms was performed on clinic patient charts of 936 migrant farm workers without access to water and sanitation facilities in the work fields and on an urban poor population of 8,968 patients. Migrants displayed a clinic utilization rate for diarrhea 20 times higher than that of the urban poor; similar findings for other enteric disease symptoms were documented. The data suggest that a water and sanitation standard mandating facilities in the work field for farm workers would reduce the incidence of fecal-related disease.