The Latest in Handwashing Behavior Change: Outcomes from the Handwashing Think Tank
The Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing (PPPHW) and its partners hosted 30 experts working on behavior change from the academic, NGO, government, and private sectors for a Handwashing Think Tank from June 20-21, 2012. Participants came together to take stock of the best, identify the gaps, and articulate the way for forward for handwashing behavior change.
Sharing and discussing the latest handwashing program results and the research, the group came to consensus on issues like critical times for handwashing. The group also realized that they were all facing similar challenges and committed to continuing communicating and learning from each other as a handwashing behavior change network.
Please join the PPPHW for a recap of the Think Tank and learn how the partnership plans to follow up on the Think Tank outcomes.
- Title: The Latest in Handwashing Behavior Change: Outcomes from the Handwashing Think Tank
- Date: Tuesday, July 17, 2012
- Time: 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM EDT
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
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Am Jnl Trop Med Hyg, July 2012
The Effect of Water Quality Testing on Household Behavior: Evidence from an Experiment in Rural India
Amar Hamoudi, Marc Jeuland*, Sarah Lombardo, Sumeet Patil, Subhrendu K. Pattanayak and Shailesh Rai
Sanford School of Public Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment, and Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Network for Engineering and Economics Research and Management, Mumbai, India; Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, South Asia, New Delhi, India
Address correspondence to Marc Jeuland, Rubenstein Hall 188, Sanford School of Public Policy, Box 90239, Durham, NC 27708. E-mail: marc.jeuland@duke.edu
How does specific information about contamination in a household’s drinking water affect water handling behavior? We randomly split a sample of households in rural Andhra Pradesh, India. The treatment group observed a contamination test of the drinking water in their own household storage vessel; while they were waiting for their results, they were also provided with a list of actions that they could take to remedy contamination if they tested positive.
The control group received no test or guidance. The drinking water of nearly 90% of tested households showed evidence of contamination by fecal bacteria. They reacted by purchasing more of their water from commercial sources but not by making more time-intensive adjustments. Providing salient evidence of risk increases demand for commercial clean water.
INTERNATIONAL NETWORK ON HOUSEHOLD WATER TREATMENT AND SAFE STORAGE
Live webinar on: Carbon Credits and HWTS: A viable “green” funding mechanism?
- When: Tuesday 17 July
- 9h30-11h00 New York
- 15h30-17h00 Geneva
- 16h30-18h00 Nairobi
Please check your corresponding local time to be sure: http://www.timeanddate.com
Carbon credits and carbon markets are a component of international attempts to mitigate the growth in concentrations of greenhouse gases. Household water treatment implementers have recently tapped into carbon markets to finance the delivery of household water treatment.
Join in this webinar to learn more the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the instrument it governs, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the linkages between credits, household water treatment and clean cook stoves. Implementers will share their experiences and webinar participants will have the opportunity to poise questions and learn more about this potentially lucrative, and at times controversial, funding mechanism.
J Infect Dev Ctries. 2012 Jun 15;6(6):508-15.
Prevalence and factors associated with Group A rotavirus infection among children with acute diarrhea in Mwanza, Tanzania.
Temu A, et al.
INTRODUCTION: Rotavirus infections frequently cause acute gastroenteritis in humans and are the most important cause of severe dehydrating diarrhea in young children in both developed and developing countries.
METHODOLOGY: This was a prospective cross-sectional, hospital-based study on 300 children ≤ 5 years with acute watery diarrhea who attended Bugando Medical Centre (BMC) and Nyamagana District hospital between May and November 2009. Stool specimens were tested for rotavirus infection using latex agglutination test. Data were cleaned and analyzed using SPSS 11.0.
RESULTS: Of 300 children with acute watery diarrhea, 136 (45.3%) were female and the mean age was 12.63 months (SD = 10.4). Sixty-two (20.7%) children were found to have rotavirus infection. Of children with severe malnutrition three (37.5%) were infected with rotavirus. Fifty-two (84%) of children with rotavirus infection were below two years of age. Severe dehydration was present in 48 (16%) children of whom 12 (25%) were infected with rotavirus compared to 18 (16.6%) of 109 children with no dehydration. Living next door to a child with diarrhea was highly associated with rotavirus infection (43% versus 19%; p = 0.036). The mean hospital stay among children with rotavirus infection was 3.66 days versus 2.5 days for those without rotavirus (p = 0.005).
CONCLUSION: Rotavirus infection is prevalent in Mwanza region and contributes to prolonged hospital stay. Proper education on hygiene to control diarrheal diseases among children should be emphasized. Extensive studies to determine the serotypes of rotavirus are warranted in the region before rotavirus vaccine is introduced.
PLoS ONE, Jan 2012.
Estimating Diarrhea Mortality among Young Children in Low and Middle Income Countries
Christa L. Fischer Walker, et al.
Background – Diarrhea remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among children under 5 years of age, but in many low and middle-income countries where vital registration data are lacking, updated estimates with regard to the proportion of deaths attributable to diarrhea are needed.
Methods – We conducted a systematic literature review to identify studies reporting diarrhea proportionate mortality for children 1–59 mo of age published between 1980 and 2009. Using the published proportionate mortality estimates and country level covariates we constructed a logistic regression model to estimate country and regional level proportionate mortality and estimated uncertainty bounds using Monte-Carlo simulations.
Findings – We identified more than 90 verbal autopsy studies from around the world to contribute data to a single-cause model. We estimated diarrhea proportionate mortality for 84 countries in 6 regions and found diarrhea to account for between 10.0% of deaths in the Americas to 31.3% of deaths in the South-east Asian region.
Discussion – Diarrhea remains a leading cause of death for children 1–59 mo of age. Published literature can be used to create a single-cause mortality disease model to estimate mortality for countries lacking vital registration data.
Environmental Health 2012, 11:4
An ecological quantification of the relationships between water, sanitation and infant, child, and maternal mortality
June J Cheng, et al.
Background: Water and sanitation access are known to be related to newborn, child, and maternal health. Our study attempts to quantify these relationships globally using country-level data: How much does improving access to water and sanitation influence infant, child, and maternal mortality?
Methods: Data for 193 countries were abstracted from global databases (World Bank, WHO, and UNICEF). Linear regression was used for the outcomes of under-five mortality rate and infant mortality rate (IMR). These results are presented as events per 1000 live births. Ordinal logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios for the outcome of maternal mortality ratio (MMR).
Results: Under-five mortality rate decreased by 1.17 (95%CI 1.08-1.26) deaths per 1000, p < 0.001, for every quartile increase in population water access after adjustments for confounders. There was a similar relationship between quartile increase of sanitation access and under-five mortality rate, with a decrease of 1.66 (95%CI 1.11-1.32) deaths per 1000, p < 0.001. Improved water access was also related to IMR, with the IMR decreasing by 1.14 (95%CI 1.05-1.23) deaths per 1000, p < 0.001, with increasing quartile of access to improved water source. The significance of this relationship was retained with quartile improvement in sanitation access, where the decrease in IMR was 1.66 (95%CI 1.11-1.32) deaths per 1000, p < 0.001. The estimated odds ratio that increased quartile of water access was significantly associated with increased quartile of MMR was 0.58 (95%CI 0.39-0.86), p = 0.008. The corresponding odds ratio for sanitation was 0.52 (95%CI 0.32- 0.85), p = 0.009, both suggesting that better water and sanitation were associated with decreased MMR.
Conclusions: Our analyses suggest that access to water and sanitation independently contribute to child and maternal mortality outcomes. If the world is to seriously address the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child and maternal mortality, then improved water and sanitation accesses are key strategies.
International Journal of Applied Science and Technology Vol. 2 No. 5; May 2012
Water Purification using Moringa oleifera and Other Locally Available Seeds in Fiji for Heavy Metal Removal
Vikashni Nand
In this paper, the use of local seeds to improve the quality of drinking water in Fiji was investigated. Analysis of the heavy metals cadmium, copper, chromium, lead and zinc were performed before and after treatment of water with the local seeds Moringa oleifera, Arachis hypogaea (peanuts), Vigna unguiculata (cowpeas), Vigna mungo (urad) and Zea mays (corn). The results showed that Moringa seeds were capable of absorbing the heavy metals tested compared to other seeds in some water samples. The percentage removal by Moringa seeds were 90 % for copper, 80 % for lead, 60 % for cadmium and 50 % for zinc and chromium.
Field Actions Science Reports, Special Issue 6, 2012
Combining interventions: improved chimney stoves, kitchen sinks and solar disinfection of drinking water and kitchen clothes to improve home hygiene in rural Peru
Stella M. Hartinger, et al.
Home based interventions are advocated in rural areas against a variety of diseases. The combination of different interventions might have synergistic effects in terms of health improvement and cost effectiveness. However, it is crucial to ensure cultural acceptance. The aim of the study was to develop an effective and culturally accepted home-based intervention package to reduce diarrhoea and lower respiratory illnesses in children.
In two rural Peruvian communities we evaluated the performance and acceptance of cooking devices, household water treatments (HWT) and home- hygiene interventions, with qualitative and quantitative methods. New ventilated stove designs reduced wood consumption by 16%. The majority of participants selected solar water disinfection as HWT in a blind tasting. In-depth interviews on hygiene improvement further revealed a high demand for kitchen sinks.
After one year of installation the improved chimney stoves and kitchen sinks were all in use. The intervention package was successfully adapted to local customs, kitchen-, home- and hygiene management. High user satisfaction was primarily driven by convenience gains due to the technical improvements and only secondarily by perceived health benefits.
Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology—AQUA Vol 61 No 4 pp 201–209 2012 doi:10.2166/aqua.2012.100
Comparative treatment performance and hydraulic characteristics of pumice and sand biofilters for point-of-use water treatment
K. Ghebremichael, L. D. Wasala, M. Kennedy and N. J. D. Graham
Patel School of Global Sustainability, University of South Florida, USA E-mail: k.ghebremichael@unesco-ihe.org; azikibm1@yahoo.com
UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
This study has investigated the comparative treatment and hydraulic performance of biosand filters (BSFs) of pumice and sand filter media, with Escherichia coli and turbidity as the principal indicators of water quality. The study has also assessed the effect of resting time on E. coli and turbidity removal. The performances of three filter columns consisting of sand, pumice, and sand/pumice dual media with a bed depth of 80 cm were evaluated over 4 months continuously. The columns were charged twice daily with local canal water. The pumice and the dual media filters achieved 24 and 14%, respectively, greater volume production per cycle compared to that of the sand filter. The pumice filter had consistently lower filtrate turbidity than the other filters with about 98.5% turbidity removal. Average E. coli removals were similar for all filters and corresponded to 0.9–1.8 log units for unripened media, and 1.4–3.3 log units for ripened media. It was observed that resting time of more than 4 h was necessary to achieve significant E. coli removal. Hydraulic and water quality profiles indicated that schmutzdecke development in the pumice layer was not effective as in the sand bed.
Journal of Water and Health Vol 10 No 2 pp 271–277 2012
Traditional copper water storage vessels and sub-lethal injury of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi and Vibrio cholerae
Riti Sharan, Sanjay Chhibber and Robert H. Reed
Centre for Plant and Water Science, Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Health, CQUniversity, Brisbane, Australia E-mail: riti.sharan@gmail.com
Department of Microbiology, Punjab University, Chandigarh, India
Recent studies on Escherichia coli have demonstrated sub-lethal injury–sensitivity to oxygen and selective agents prior to irreversible inactivation when kept in water in a brass vessel. The present study was carried out to investigate whether equivalent responses occur in copper vessels using the pathogens Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi and Vibrio cholerae. Bacterial suspensions were stored in water in a traditional copper vessel for up to 24 h at 30 °C. Samples were withdrawn and plated on selective and non-selective media, then incubated under (a) aerobic conditions and (b) conditions where reactive oxygen species were neutralized to enumerate injured bacteria. Short-term incubation in water kept in a copper vessel caused a greater decrease in counts for both pathogens on selective media, compared to non-selective media with greater differences between aerobic and reactive oxygen species-neutralized counts using selective media compared to non-selective nutrient agar. These findings have practical implications for the short-term storage of water samples in copper storage vessel as the possibility of bacterial injury is high, hence enumeration under conventional aerobic conditions may not be sufficient to give a count of all viable bacteria.
