Diseases That Commonly Arise if Tanks Are Not Cleaned Regularly

Bird droppings, debris, dust, dead animals, and twigs from nearby trees can easily make their way into your rainwater tank.

And if you do not clean your rainwater tank regularly, this debris can spread the growth of some very harmful bacteria and parasites. Using such contaminated water can often increase the risk of health diseases.

Still not convinced about scheduling regular tank cleaning?

Here are some diseases that contaminated water from unclean tanks can cause and their effects to make you reconsider.

Salmonellosis

Salmonella infections are a type of bacterial disease of the intestinal tract. Symptoms of an infection may include nausea, diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, vomiting, and headache.

Salmonellosis has an incubation period of between 12 and 72 hours.

Gastroenteritis

Gastroenteritis is one of the most common gastrointestinal illnesses caused due to contaminated water. This condition causes inflammation of the stomach and intestines.

Symptoms of gastroenteritis include fever, muscle aches, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. It has an incubation period of between 24 and 48 hours.

Cholera

Cholera is a common waterborne illness, with strains in many rivers along Australia’s east coast. It causes an infection with symptoms like dehydration, nausea, vomiting, and watery diarrhea.

Cholera has an incubation period of between a few hours and 5 days.

Typhoid Fever

A bacterial infection, typhoid fever can affect the whole body and spread to multiple organs.

Symptoms of typhoid fever include high temperature, headache, aches and pains, cough, constipation, and fatigue. It is highly contagious and has an incubation period of 6 to 30 days.

Dysentery

Dysentery is an intestinal infection that results in inflammation of the intestines. It has an incubation period of between 1 and 7 days.

Dysentery causes bloody diarrhea, painful stomach cramps, a high fever, and vomiting. The condition can spread through person-to-person contact and can be fatal for people over 50 and young children.

Legionnaires’ Disease

Legionella is a common water bacterium found in tropical parts of Australia. It is known to cause a lung infection called Legionnaires’ disease.

Its symptoms include coughing, loss of appetite, muscle aches, fatigue, headache, high fever, pneumonia, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Legionnaires’ disease has an incubation period of 2 to 14 days.

Diarrhea

Diarrhea can occur as a separate condition or one of the symptoms of a campylobacteriosis infection.

It is one of the most common forms of waterborne disease and typically occurs with symptoms like fever, cramping, abdominal pain, and nausea.

Diarrhea can turn life-threatening in patients with weak immune systems.

When Should You Call Gutter-Vac?

You should carry out regular tank cleaning once every three months to keep diseases from contamination at bay.

And when you hire Gutter-Vac’s expert team to clean your rainwater tank, you can get it done in the shortest span of time. Our specialised vacuum system can clean your tank even when it’s full of water. So you don’t need to empty the tank before cleaning.

If you prefer it the traditional way, our professionals can handle it just the same.

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