Abstractobjective This study was conducted to measure the impact of a hygiene intervention on the contamination of weaning food in Bangladesh.methods Sixty households were selected: 30 study and 30 control households. Samples of weaning food were collected from all the 60 households at baseline and examined for faecal coliforms (FC), faecal streptococci (FS) and Clostridium perfringens (CP) following standard procedures. After cooking, food samples were collected on three occasions before feeding. Following Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) procedures, critical control points were determined. The mothers in the 30 study households were then trained for 4 weeks in how to attain the control point conditions. Then, again the food samples were collected and analysed.results At baseline, weaning foods from study and control households were heavily contaminated with FC and FS. The FC and FS counts were 1.84 log 10 and 1.92 log 10 colony-forming unit (cfu)/g, respectively, in the study households, and 0.86 log 10 and 1.33 log 10 cfu/g, respectively, in the control households in the first feeding. After the intervention, the FC and FS counts in study households had dropped to 0.10 log 10 and 0.09 log 10 cfu/g, respectively, a statistically significant reduction (P < 0.001). Monitoring the sustainability of the behaviour change after 3 months showed that the mothers were maintaining food hygiene.conclusions A hygiene intervention following the HACCP approach reduced the weaning food contamination significantly. Awareness building among mothers about weaning food hygiene could be an important intervention for preventing weaning food-related diarrhoea in Bangladesh.keywords weaning food, hazard analysis critical control point, hygiene intervention, diarrhoea, Bangladesh
BackgroundGroundwater drawn from shallow tubewells in Bangladesh is often polluted by nearby pit latrines, which are commonly used toilets in rural and sub-urban areas of the country.MethodsTo determine the minimum safe distance of a tubewell from a pit latrine in different hydrogeological conditions of Bangladesh, 20 monitoring wells were installed at three study sites (Manda, Mohanpur and Bagmara) with the vertical and horizontal distances ranging from 18–47 to 2–15 m, respectively. Water samples were collected three times in three seasons and tested for faecal coliforms (FC) and faecal streptococci (FS) as indicators of contamination. Soil samples were analysed for texture, bulk density and hydraulic conductivity following standard procedures. Sediment samples were collected to prepare lithological logs.ResultsWhen the shallow aquifers at one of the three sites (Mohanpur) were overlained by 18–23-m-thick aquitards, the groundwater of the monitoring wells was found contaminated with a lateral and vertical distances of 2 and 31 m, respectively. However, where the aquitard was only 9 m thick, contamination was found up to lateral and vertical distances of 4.5 and 40.5 m, respectively. The soil textures of all the sites were mainly composed of loam and sandy loam. The hydraulic conductivities in the first aquifer at Manda, Mohanpur and Bagmara were 5.2–7.3, 8.2 and 1.4–15.7 m/h, respectively.ConclusionsThe results showed that the safe distance from the tubewell to the pit latrine varied from site to site depending on the horizontal and vertical distances of the tubewell as well as hydrogeological conditions of a particular area.
The presence of SARS-CoV-2 genetic materials in wastewater has become a matter of grave for many countries of the world. Wastewater based epidemiology, in this context, emerged as an important tool in developed countries where proper sewage system is available. Due to the recent shift in the spread of the infection from urban to rural areas, it is now equally important to develop a similar mechanism for rural areas as well. Considering the urgency of the issue a study was conducted in 14 districts of Bangladesh and a total of 238 sewage samples were collected in two different periods from December 2020 to January 2021. We are the first to propose a surveillance system for both urban and rural areas where a proper sewage system is absent. Based on RT-PCR analysis of the water samples, in more than 92% of cases, we found the presence of the SARS-COV-2 gene (ORF1ab, N, and Internal Control-IC). The trend of Ct value varies for different study locations. The spread of genetic material for on-site (m = - 0.0386) sanitation system was found more prominent than that of off-site sewage system (m = 0.0105); which indicated the shift of genetic material from urban to rural areas. Wastewater samples were also measured for physicochemical parameters, including pH (6.30 - 12.50) and temperature (22.10 - 32.60)C. The highest viral titer of 1975 copy/mL in sewage sample was observed in a sample collected from the isolation ward of the SARS-COV-2 hospital. Additionally, a correlation was found between bacterial load and SARS-CoV-2 genetic materials. The results indicated the association of increased Ct values with decreasing number of patients and vice versa. The findings reported in this paper contributed to the field of wastewater-based epidemiology dealing with SARS-COV-2 surveillance for developing countries where proper sewage system is absent and highlighting some of the challenges associated with this approach in such settings.
Keywords: On-site Sanitation, Off-site Sanitation, SARS-CoV-2, Genetic Materials, Developing Countries, Rural Wastewater-Based Surveillance System.
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