Fw: new paper linking water quality and childhood diarrhoea

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Dan Campbell

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Nov 3, 2015, 11:34:03 AM11/3/15

to household-wa...@googlegroups.com

Many thanks to Rick Johnston for sharing this important study.

We will be sure to feature it in the Nov 13, WASHplus Weekly.

From: JOHNSTON, Richard Paul <john...@who.int>
Sent: Tuesday, November 3, 2015 11:13 AM
To: Dan Campbell
Subject: FW: new paper linking water quality and childhood diarrhoea

Dear Dan:

I’m very excited about a new paper that came out recently, would you consider putting it in an upcoming newsletter? Take a look and see what you think.

Best regards,

Rick

--------------------

Rick Johnston

Technical Officer

Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP)

Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health (PHE)

World Health Organization

Avenue Appia 20

CH-1211 Geneva 27

Switzerland

Tel: +41 22 79 13156

Mobile: +41 79 217 3451

Email: john...@who.int

www.who.int/water_sanitation_health

www.wssinfo.org

From: JOHNSTON, Richard Paul
Sent: 03 November 2015 15:57
To: PRUSS-USTUN, Annette Martine; Hunter Paul Prof (MED (Paul....@uea.ac.uk); BOISSON, Sophie; GORDON, Bruce Allan; DE FRANCE, Jennifer
Subject: new paper linking water quality and childhood diarrhoea

Dear all:

Steve Luby’s group has published an analysis of household water quality data in Bangladesh, finding a dose-response relationship between E. coli and child diarrhoea. I think this will replace Christine Moe’s 1991 paper as the authoritative reference on this link between environment and health. She only found a health link at very high E. coli concentrations (above 1000 cfu/100 mL) – we find a link at the 100-1000 level, but also a strong link with log-transformed E. coli that can be applied at lower levels.

Each ten-fold increase in E. coli was associated with a 14% increase in child diarrhoea within the next 3-100 days, or a 35% increase in diarrhoea within the next 3-46 days. The population attributable fraction of diarrhoea in the 3-46 day window was 17%. By measuring diarrhoea several days after the water quality test, the analysis supports a causal relationship (the possibility of reverse causality is much less).

Microbiological Contamination of Drinking Water Associated with Subsequent Child Diarrhea

Am J Trop Med Hyg 2015 15-0274. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.15-0274

http://www.ajtmh.org/content/early/2015/10/01/ajtmh.15-0274.short

We paid the Open Access fee for this article – thanks Bruce!