Alum Potash in Water to Prevent Cholera

Microbial counts and pesticide concentrations in drinking water after alum flocculation of channel feed water at the household level, in Vinh Long Province, Vietnam

“…Alum treatment of household water has been demonstrated to reduce secondary transmission within households during a cholera epidemic in Bangladesh (Khan et al 1984).…”

“…Eight studies using free chlorine T. Wrigley Drinking water quality after househoid treatment in s Vietnamese Journal of Water and Health | 05.1 | 2007 produced a median reduction of 46% (KirchhofF et al 1985;Sircar et al 1986;Mahfouz et al 1995;Handzel 1998;Semenza et al 1998;Quick et al 1999Quick et al , 2002Sobsey et al 2003); four studies examining filtration had a median reduction of 40% (Payment et al 1991;Hellard et al 2001;Clasen et al 2003;Col well et al 2003); three studies employing flocculation or a combination of flocculation and disinfection showed a median reduction of 38% (Kahn et al 1984;Luby et al 2001;Reller et al 2003), and four studies of heat or solar radiation produced a median reduction of 35% (Conroy et al 1996(Conroy et al , 1999(Conroy et al , 2001Iijima et al 2001). Eight studies using free chlorine T. Wrigley Drinking water quality after househoid treatment in s Vietnamese Journal of Water and Health | 05.1 | 2007 produced a median reduction of 46% (KirchhofF et al 1985;Sircar et al 1986;Mahfouz et al 1995;Handzel 1998;Semenza et al 1998;Quick et al 1999Quick et al , 2002Sobsey et al 2003); four studies examining filtration had a median reduction of 40% (Payment et al 1991;Hellard et al 2001;Clasen et al 2003;Col well et al 2003); three studies employing flocculation or a combination of flocculation and disinfection showed a median reduction of 38% (Kahn et al 1984;Luby et al 2001;Reller et al 2003), and four studies of heat or solar radiation produced a median reduction of 35% …”

“…Only 2 of the 21 intervention studies showed no statistically significant reduction when compared with controls (Kirchhoff et al 1985;Hellard et al 2001). Experiments using well and pond water treated with a range of doses of alum and inoculated with Escfierichia coli or Vibrio cholerae at fixed concentrations show that alum doses of 500 g ml" ^ reduced 8-h survival of both organisms (Khan et al 1984;Oo et al (1993) found traditional alum flocculation substantially reduced both E. coli and total coliform numbers from shallow well water. Experiments using well and pond water treated with a range of doses of alum and inoculated with Escfierichia coli or Vibrio cholerae at fixed concentrations show that alum doses of 500 g ml" ^ reduced 8-h survival of both organisms (Khan et al 1984;Oo et al (1993) found traditional alum flocculation substantially reduced both E. coli and total coliform numbers from shallow well water.…”

Cholera vaccines: the current status and problems

“…Many developing countries committed to provide better health care to their population have made rapid progress in a short period of time by adopting sanitary measures and have occupied high places in WHO's recent analysis of the world's health systems [163]. Practice of some simple measures related to food handling, water storage and treatment can substantially reduce cholera rate [65,164,165]. Moreover, the situation of cholera treatment is far from being dismal as improvement in clinical management has significantly reduced the mortality to less than 1% [14].…”

Household Water Purification: Low-Cost Interventions

“…In another study, alum potash was found to be effective in reducing illness among family members in intervention households (9.6%) than in control households (17.7%) in a cholera affected area [16].…”