Effects of single and integrated water, sanitation, handwashing, and nutrition interventions on child soil-transmitted helminth and Giardia infections: A cluster-randomized controlled trial in rural Kenya.

BACKGROUND: Helminth and protozoan infections affect more than 1 billion children globally. Improving water quality, sanitation, handwashing, and nutrition could be more sustainable control strategies for parasite infections than mass drug administration, while providing other quality of life benefits. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We enrolled geographic clusters of pregnant women in rural western Kenya into a cluster-randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01704105) that tested 6 interventions: water treatment, improved sanitation, handwashing with soap, combined water treatment, sanitation, and handwashing (WSH), improved nutrition, and combined WSH and nutrition (WSHN). We assessed intervention effects on parasite infections by measuring Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, hookworm, and Giardia duodenalis among children born to the enrolled pregnant women (index children) and their older siblings. After 2 years of intervention exposure, we collected stool specimens from 9,077 total children aged 2 to 15 years in 622 clusters, including 2,346 children in an active control group (received household visits but no interventions), 1,117 in the water treatment arm, 1,160 in the sanitation arm, 1,141 in the handwashing arm, 1,064 in the WSH arm, 1,072 in the nutrition arm, and 1,177 in the WSHN arm. In the control group, 23% of children were infected with A. lumbricoides, 1% with T. trichiura, 2% with hookworm, and 39% with G. duodenalis. The analysis included 4,928 index children (median age in years: 2) and 4,149 older siblings (median age in years: 5); study households had an average of 5 people, <10% had electricity access, and >90% had dirt floors. Compared to the control group, Ascaris infection prevalence was lower in the water treatment arm (prevalence ratio [PR]: 0.82 [95% CI 0.67, 1.00], p = 0.056), the WSH arm (PR: 0.78 [95% CI 0.63, 0.96], p = 0.021), and the WSHN arm (PR: 0.78 [95% CI 0.64, 0.96], p = 0.017). We did not observe differences in Ascaris infection prevalence between the control group and the arms with the individual interventions sanitation (PR: 0.89 [95% CI 0.73, 1.08], p = 0.228), handwashing (PR: 0.89 [95% CI 0.73, 1.09], p = 0.277), or nutrition (PR: 86 [95% CI 0.71, 1.05], p = 0.148). Integrating nutrition with WSH did not provide additional benefit. Trichuris and hookworm were rarely detected, resulting in imprecise effect estimates. No intervention reduced Giardia. Reanalysis of stool samples by quantitative polymerase chain reaction confirmed the reductions in Ascaris infections measured by microscopy in the WSH and WSHN groups. Trial limitations included imperfect uptake of targeted intervention behaviors, limited power to detect effects on rare parasite infections, and that it was not feasible to blind participants and sample collectors to treatment status. However, lab technicians and data analysts were blinded to treatment status. The trial was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development. CONCLUSIONS: Integration of improved water quality, sanitation, and handwashing could contribute to sustainable control strategies for Ascaris infections, particularly in similar settings with recent or ongoing deworming programs. Combining nutrition with WSH did not provide further benefits, and water treatment alone was similarly effective to integrated WSH. Our findings provide new evidence that drinking water should be given increased attention as a transmission pathway for Ascaris. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01704105.

[Achievements and prospects on environmental health and sanitary engineering in China].

According to different epochs and development needs, a series of practices on environmental health and sanitary engineering were carried out, which played significant roles in promoting national economic and social developments and protecting the public health. This paper reviewed the main achievements in the past 70 years infields of patriotic health campaign, water sanitation and toilet improvement in rural areas, surveillance and investigation, health standard system, sanitary engineering equipment, stove improvement etc., and then proposed several prospects in the future.

The use of open source GIS algorithms, big geographic data, and cluster computing techniques to compile a geospatial database that can be used to evaluate upstream bathing and sanitation behaviours on downstream health outcomes in Indonesia, 2000-2008.

BACKGROUND: Waterborne diseases are one of the leading causes of mortality in developing countries, and diarrhea alone is responsible for over 1.5 million deaths annually. Such waterborne illnesses most often affect those in impoverished rural communities who rely on rivers for their supply of drinking water. Deaths are most common among infants and the elderly. Without knowledge of which communities are upstream of a community, upstream sanitary and bathing behaviors can never be directly linked to downstream health outcomes including disease outbreaks. Although current GIS technologies can answer the upstream question for a limited number of downstream communities, no systematic way existed of labeling each downstream village with all its upstream contributing villages along river networks or within basins at the large national scale, such as in Indonesia. This limitation prohibits macro analyses of waterborne illness across developing world communities globally. RESULTS: This novel method approach combines parallel computing, big data, community data, and open source GIS to create a database of upstream communities for 50,000-70,0000 villages in Indonesia across four differing periods. The resultant village database provides information that can be tied to the Indonesian PODES health and behavior surveys in each village to connect upstream sanitary behaviors to downstream health outcomes. We find that the approximately 250,000 communities analyzed across the four periods in Indonesia have a combined total of 13.7 million upstream villages. The average number of upstream villages per village was almost 55, the maximum number of upstream villages for any single village was over 5300. CONCLUSIONS: Advances in big-data availability, particularly high-resolution elevation data, the lowering of the cost of parallel computing options, mass survey data, and open source GIS algorithms that can utilize parallel processing and big-data, open new opportunities for the study of human health at micro granularities but across entire nations. The database generated has already been used by health researchers to compute the influence of upstream behaviors on downstream diarrhea outbreaks and to monitor avoidance behaviors to upstream water behaviors across all downstream 250,000 Indonesian villages over 4 years, and further waterborne health analyses are underway.

Toilet training: what can the cookstove sector learn from improved sanitation promotion?

Within the domain of public health, commonalities exist between the sanitation and cookstove sectors. Despite these commonalities and the grounds established for cross-learning between both sectors, however, there has not been much evidence of knowledge exchange across them to date. Our paper frames this as a missed opportunity for the cookstove sector, given the capacity for user-centred innovation and multi-scale approaches demonstrated in the sanitation sector. The paper highlights points of convergence and divergence in the approaches used in both sectors, with particular focus on behaviour change approaches that go beyond the level of the individual. The analysis highlights the importance of the enabling environment, community-focused approaches and locally specific contextual factors in promoting behavioural change in the sanitation sector. Our paper makes a case for the application of such approaches to cookstove interventions, especially in light of their ability to drive sustained change by matching demand-side motivations with supply-side opportunities. Abbreviation: DALY: Disability-adjusted life year; CHC: Community Health Club; CLTS: Community-Led Total Sanitation; HAP: Household air pollution; BM-WASH: Integrated Behavioural Model for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene; ICS: Improved cookstove; LPG: Liquefied petroleum gas; NBA: Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan; NGO: Non:governmental organisation; OD: Open defecation; ODF: Open defecation free; HAST: Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation; RANAS: Risks, Attitudes, Norms, Abilities and Self-regulation RCT: Randomised controlled trial; (Sani) FOAM: Focus, Opportunity, Ability and Motivation; SBM: Swachh Bharat Mission; TSC: Total Sanitation Campaign; WASH: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks in 188 countries, 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.

BACKGROUND: The Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor study 2013 (GBD 2013) is the first of a series of annual updates of the GBD. Risk factor quantification, particularly of modifiable risk factors, can help to identify emerging threats to population health and opportunities for prevention. The GBD 2013 provides a timely opportunity to update the comparative risk assessment with new data for exposure, relative risks, and evidence on the appropriate counterfactual risk distribution. METHODS: Attributable deaths, years of life lost, years lived with disability, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) have been estimated for 79 risks or clusters of risks using the GBD 2010 methods. Risk-outcome pairs meeting explicit evidence criteria were assessed for 188 countries for the period 1990-2013 by age and sex using three inputs: risk exposure, relative risks, and the theoretical minimum risk exposure level (TMREL). Risks are organised into a hierarchy with blocks of behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks at the first level of the hierarchy. The next level in the hierarchy includes nine clusters of related risks and two individual risks, with more detail provided at levels 3 and 4 of the hierarchy. Compared with GBD 2010, six new risk factors have been added: handwashing practices, occupational exposure to trichloroethylene, childhood wasting, childhood stunting, unsafe sex, and low glomerular filtration rate. For most risks, data for exposure were synthesised with a Bayesian meta-regression method, DisMod-MR 2.0, or spatial-temporal Gaussian process regression. Relative risks were based on meta-regressions of published cohort and intervention studies. Attributable burden for clusters of risks and all risks combined took into account evidence on the mediation of some risks such as high body-mass index (BMI) through other risks such as high systolic blood pressure and high cholesterol. FINDINGS: All risks combined account for 57·2% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 55·8-58·5) of deaths and 41·6% (40·1-43·0) of DALYs. Risks quantified account for 87·9% (86·5-89·3) of cardiovascular disease DALYs, ranging to a low of 0% for neonatal disorders and neglected tropical diseases and malaria. In terms of global DALYs in 2013, six risks or clusters of risks each caused more than 5% of DALYs: dietary risks accounting for 11·3 million deaths and 241·4 million DALYs, high systolic blood pressure for 10·4 million deaths and 208·1 million DALYs, child and maternal malnutrition for 1·7 million deaths and 176·9 million DALYs, tobacco smoke for 6·1 million deaths and 143·5 million DALYs, air pollution for 5·5 million deaths and 141·5 million DALYs, and high BMI for 4·4 million deaths and 134·0 million DALYs. Risk factor patterns vary across regions and countries and with time. In sub-Saharan Africa, the leading risk factors are child and maternal malnutrition, unsafe sex, and unsafe water, sanitation, and handwashing. In women, in nearly all countries in the Americas, north Africa, and the Middle East, and in many other high-income countries, high BMI is the leading risk factor, with high systolic blood pressure as the leading risk in most of Central and Eastern Europe and south and east Asia. For men, high systolic blood pressure or tobacco use are the leading risks in nearly all high-income countries, in north Africa and the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. For men and women, unsafe sex is the leading risk in a corridor from Kenya to South Africa. INTERPRETATION: Behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks can explain half of global mortality and more than one-third of global DALYs providing many opportunities for prevention. Of the larger risks, the attributable burden of high BMI has increased in the past 23 years. In view of the prominence of behavioural risk factors, behavioural and social science research on interventions for these risks should be strengthened. Many prevention and primary care policy options are available now to act on key risks. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Indicators linking health and sustainability in the post-2015 development agenda.

The UN-led discussion about the post-2015 sustainable development agenda provides an opportunity to develop indicators and targets that show the importance of health as a precondition for and an outcome of policies to promote sustainable development. Health as a precondition for development has received considerable attention in terms of achievement of health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), addressing growing challenges of non-communicable diseases, and ensuring universal health coverage. Much less attention has been devoted to health as an outcome of sustainable development and to indicators that show both changes in exposure to health-related risks and progress towards environmental sustainability. We present a rationale and methods for the selection of health-related indicators to measure progress of post-2015 development goals in non-health sectors. The proposed indicators show the ancillary benefits to health and health equity (co-benefits) of sustainable development policies, particularly those to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase resilience to environmental change. We use illustrative examples from four thematic areas: cities, food and agriculture, energy, and water and sanitation. Embedding of a range of health-related indicators in the post-2015 goals can help to raise awareness of the probable health gains from sustainable development policies, thus making them more attractive to decision makers and more likely to be implemented than before.

Patterns in coverage of maternal, newborn, and child health interventions: projections of neonatal and under-5 mortality to 2035.

BACKGROUND: Urgent calls have been made for improved understanding of changes in coverage of maternal, newborn, and child health interventions, and their country-level determinants. We examined historical trends in coverage of interventions with proven effectiveness, and used them to project rates of child and neonatal mortality in 2035 in 74 Countdown to 2015 priority countries. METHODS: We investigated coverage of all interventions for which evidence was available to suggest effective reductions in maternal and child mortality, for which indicators have been defined, and data have been obtained through household surveys. We reanalysed coverage data from 312 nationally-representative household surveys done between 1990 and 2011 in 69 countries, including 58 Countdown countries. We developed logistic Loess regression models for patterns of coverage change for each intervention, and used k-means cluster analysis to divide interventions into three groups with different historical patterns of coverage change. Within each intervention group, we examined performance of each country in achieving coverage gains. We constructed models that included baseline coverage, region, gross domestic product, conflict, and governance to examine country-specific annual percentage coverage change for each group of indicators. We used the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) to predict mortality rates of children younger than 5 years (henceforth, under 5) and in the neonatal period in 2035 for Countdown countries if trends in coverage continue unchanged (historical trends scenario) and if each country accelerates intervention coverage to the highest level achieved by a Countdown country with similar baseline coverage level (best performer scenario). RESULTS: Odds of coverage of three interventions (antimalarial treatment, skilled attendant at birth, and use of improved sanitation facilities) have decreased since 1990, with a mean annual decrease of 5·5% (SD 2·7%). Odds of coverage of four interventions--all related to the prevention of malaria--have increased rapidly, with a mean annual increase of 27·9% (7·3%). Odds of coverage of other interventions have slowly increased, with a mean annual increase of 5·3% (3·5%). Rates of coverage change varied widely across countries; we could not explain the differences by measures of gross domestic product, conflict, or governance. On the basis of LiST projections, we predicted that the number of Countdown countries with an under-5 mortality rate of fewer than 20 deaths per 1000 livebirths per year would increase from four (5%) of the 74 in 2010, to nine (12%) by 2035 under the historical trends scenario, and to 15 (20%) under the best performer scenario. The number of countries with neonatal mortality rates of fewer than 11 per 1000 livebirths per year would increase from three (4%) in 2010, to ten (14%) by 2035 under the historical trends scenario, and 67 (91%) under the best performer scenario. The number of under-5 deaths per year would decrease from an estimated 7·6 million in 2010, to 5·4 million (28% decrease) if historical trends continue, and to 2·3 million (71% decrease) under the best performer scenario. INTERPRETATION: Substantial reductions in child deaths are possible, but only if intensified efforts to achieve intervention coverage are implemented successfully within each of the Countdown countries. FUNDING: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Trends in access to water supply and sanitation in 31 major sub-Saharan African cities: an analysis of DHS data from 2000 to 2012.

BACKGROUND: By 2050, sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) urban population is expected to grow from 414 million to over 1.2 billion. This growth will likely increase challenges to municipalities attempting to provide access to water supply and sanitation (WS&S). This study aims to characterize trends in access to WS&S in SSA cities and identify factors affecting those trends. METHODS: DHS data collected between 2000 and 2012 were used for this analysis of thirty-one cities in SSA. Four categories of household access to WS&S were studied using data from demographic and health surveys--these included: 1) household access to an improved water supply, 2) household's time spent collecting water, 3) household access to improved sanitation, and 4) households reporting to engage in open defecation. An exploratory analysis of these measures was then conducted to assess the relationship of access to several independent variables. RESULTS: Among the 31 cities, there was wide variability in coverage levels and trends in coverage with respect to the four categories of access. The majority of cities were found to be increasing access in the categories of improved water supply and improved sanitation (65% and 83% of cities, respectively), while fewer were making progress in reducing the amount of time spent collecting water and reducing open defecation (50% and 38% of cities, respectively). Additionally, the prevalence of open defecation in study cities was found to be, on average, increasing. CONCLUSIONS: Based on DHS data, cities appeared to be making the most progress in gaining access to WS&S along metrics which reflect specified targets of the Millennium Development Goals. Nearly half of the cities, however, did not make progress in reducing open defecation or the time spent collecting water. This may reflect that the MDGs have led to a focus on "improved" services while other measures, potentially more relevant to the extreme poor, are being neglected. This study highlights the need to better characterize access, beyond definitions of improved and unimproved, as well as the need to target resources to cities where changes in WS&S access have stalled, or in some cases regressed.

Prevalence of gastrointestinal disease and its associated risk factors in Sikkim and Darjeeling Districts.

The gastrointestinal disease accounts for a large number of deaths in several parts of the world. Gastrointestinal infection has been an emerging problem in Sikkim and Darjeeling District and also in other parts of our country. To study the prevalence and to explore the risk factors associated with gastrointestinal diseases in Sikkim and Darjeeling District. The present study is the population based descriptive type cross sectional study. The study design was based on random selection among 100 individuals from different areas of Sikkim and Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Questionnaire based anonymous feedback system was followed to collect the data. The data were analyzed using statistical tool and the relative risk was calculated. Total 65 (65%) cases of gastrointestinal disease were found in 100 individuals out of which 24 were males and 41 were females. Cases of diarrhea, gastroenteritis, dysentery, food poisoning, amoebiosis and enterocolitis was 34, 18, 3, 3, 1 and 0% respectively. The statistical analysis reveals that a gastrointestinal disease is more prevalent in females as compared to males and in the age group between 15 and 25 years. The various associated risk factors for gastrointestinal disease which was observed during the study were frequency of diet, diet type, consumption of spicy food, fermented food, smoking, consumption of alcohol, consumption of fruits available in market and an inappropriate sanitary condition.

What can we learn from inflammatory bowel disease in developing countries?

Inflammatory bowel diseases occur due to an aberrant immune response to luminal antigens in genetically predisposed individuals. Although specific genetic loci have been identified underlying the predisposition, they have not fully explained the disease etiology. Striking epidemiological observations implicate the critical role of environmental influences on disease penetrance. The emergence of disease consistently observed as a society becomes modernized or developed may be attributed to westernization of diet, changing antibiotic use, or improved hygiene status. These factors are linked with changes in the gastrointestinal microbiota which, in turn, may affect development of the immune system and influence the risk of disease occurrence. Geographic variations within developing countries suggest that the strength of influence by risk factors in a society varies greatly. Studies of IBD in populations of developing countries where there are opportunities to prospectively collect changing exposure data over time may provide clues to the disease etiology.

Agriculture and malnutrition in India.

BACKGROUND: Despite the high and relatively stable overall growth of the economy, India's agriculture sector is underperforming and a vast section of the population remains undernourished. OBJECTIVE: To explore the possible interplay between agricultural performance and malnutrition indicators to see whether states that perform better in agriculture record better nutritional outcomes. METHODS: Correlation analysis and a simple linear regression model were used to study the relationship between agricultural performance and malnutrition among children under 5 years of age and adults from 15 to 49 years of age at 20 major states using data from the National Family Health Survey-3 for the year 2005/06 and the national accounts. RESULTS: Indicators of the level of agricultural performance or income have a strong and significant negative relationship with indices of undernutrition among adults and children, a result suggesting that improvement of agricultural productivity can be a powerful tool to reduce undernutrition across the vast majority of the population. In addition to agriculture, access to sanitation facilities and women's literacy were also found to be strong factors affecting malnutrition. Access to healthcare for women and child-care practices, in particular breastfeeding within 1 hour after birth, are other important determinants of malnutrition among adults and children. CONCLUSIONS: Malnutrition is a multidimensional problem that requires multisectoral interventions. The findings show that improving agricultural performance can have a positive impact on nutritional outcomes. However, improvements in agriculture alone cannot be effective in combating malnutrition if several other mediating factors are not in place. Interventions to improve education, health, sanitation and household infrastructure, and care and feeding practices are critical. Innovative strategies that integrate agriculture and nutrition programs stand a better chance of combating the malnutrition problem.

[Sanitary risks related to importation of workers to Reunion Island during the XIXth century]. / Le risque sanitaire relatif a l'immigration au XIXeme siècle a la Réunion.

The XIXth century is the period of the sugar industrialization in Réunion. In spite of the abolition of the slaves trade in 1817 and the English abolition of the slavery of 1833, the sugar industry imported large numbers of African and Asian workers which exceeded in number the white population and that of the slaves. As the public health and the health controls came under the governor, the prevention was insufficient in the XIXth century. There were several establishments of "decontamination", sanitary observation in Saint-Denis under the authority of the colonial doctor. However, in the absence of a lazaret, the ship which transported imported workers had to be suspected to be contaminated not to be granted access. The lazaret of La grande chaloupe opened lately around 1850. Under the pressure of the industry, traders and captains, not all immigrants passed by the lazaret before entering the island. Therefore, the public health relative to the massive immigration in Réunion depended more on the private domain than on the public domain because the immigration was linked with major economic interests.

Can open-defecation free (ODF) communities be sustained? A cross-sectional study in rural Ghana.

Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is a widely used approach to reduce open defecation in rural areas of low-income countries. Following CLTS programs, communities are designated as open defecation free (ODF) when household-level toilet coverage reaches the threshold specified by national guidelines (e.g., 80% in Ghana). However, because sanitation conditions are rarely monitored after communities are declared ODF, the ability of CLTS to generate lasting reductions in open defecation is poorly understood. In this study, we examined the extent to which levels of toilet ownership and use were sustained in 109 communities in rural Northern Ghana up to two and a half years after they had obtained ODF status. We found that the majority of communities (75%) did not meet Ghana's ODF requirements. Over a third of households had either never owned (16%) or no longer owned (24%) a functional toilet, and 25% reported practicing open defecation regularly. Toilet pit and superstructure collapse were the primary causes of reversion to open defecation. Multivariate regression analysis indicated that communities had higher toilet coverage when they were located further from major roads, were not located on rocky soil, reported having a system of fines to punish open defecation, and when less time had elapsed since ODF status achievement. Households were more likely to own a functional toilet if they were larger, wealthier, had a male household head who had not completed primary education, had no children under the age of five, and benefitted from the national Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) program. Wealthier households were also more likely to use a toilet for defecation and to rebuild their toilet when it collapsed. Our findings suggest that interventions that address toilet collapse and the difficulty of rebuilding, particularly among the poorest and most vulnerable households, will improve the longevity of CLTS-driven sanitation improvements in rural Ghana.

Challenges to mapping the health risk of hepatitis A virus infection.

BACKGROUND: World maps are among the most effective ways to convey public health messages such as recommended vaccinations, but creating a useful and valid map requires careful deliberation. The changing epidemiology of hepatitis A virus (HAV) in many world regions heightens the need for up-to-date risk maps. HAV infection is usually asymptomatic in children, so low-income areas with high incidence rates usually have a low burden of disease. In higher-income areas, many adults remain susceptible to the virus and, if infected, often experience severe disease. RESULTS: Several challenges associated with presenting hepatitis A risk using maps were identified, including the need to decide whether prior infection or continued susceptibility more aptly indicates risk, whether to display incidence or prevalence, how to distinguish between different levels of risk, how to display changes in risk over time, how to present complex information to target audiences, and how to handle missing or obsolete data. CONCLUSION: For future maps to be comparable across place and time, we propose the use of the age at midpoint of population susceptibility as a standard indicator for the level of hepatitis A endemicity within a world region. We also call for the creation of an accessible active database for population-based age-specific HAV seroprevalence and incidence studies. Health risk maps for other conditions with rapidly changing epidemiology would benefit from similar strategies.

[Adapting the answers to new problems of living in a changing society]. / Adeguare le risposte ai nuovi problemi dell'abitare in una società che cambia.

The paper focuses on the health consequences of recent social and economic changes and stresses on the issue of housing emergency, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. What emerges is a bleak picture, especially in the suburbs of large cities, with sanitation problems comparable to those of the time of the Unity of Italy. Authors then analyze the evidence of risk related to degradation of housing and present some examples that quantify the effectiveness of environmental improvement on health. The work concludes stressing the need to bring this issue back to center of the Public Health agenda, both in terms of health impact assessment, both in terms of training and awareness of the different social actors involved, also recovering a political role emphasized by Rudolf Virchow as early as the late nineteenth century.