Water cost and availability: key determinants of family hygiene in a Peruvian shantytown.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES. This study was conducted to determine whether poor hygiene practices are owing to difficulty in getting enough water and/or to ignorance of sanitary principles. METHODS. In a water-scarce shantytown in Lima, Peru, we observed in 12-hour periods over 3 consecutive days the amount of water and soap used for personal and domestic activities in 53 families and the frequency with which direct fecal contamination of hands was interrupted by washing. We also surveyed women in a similar shantytown concerning their knowledge of hygiene to ascertain whether noncompliance was owing to ignorance. RESULTS. Three hundred fecal contamination events were registered, of which only 38 (13%) were interrupted by hand washing within 15 minutes. The mean 12-hour per capita amount of water and soap used by the families was low. More than 80% of the water stored by these families had fecal coliforms. Yet the level of knowledge concerning the importance of hand washing and other hygienic practices was high. CONCLUSIONS. In water-scarce areas, sanitary education programs probably will not change hygiene practices. In these areas, an adequate supply of water is essential for good hygiene.

Boiling as Household Water Treatment in Cambodia: A Longitudinal Study of Boiling Practice and Microbiological Effectiveness

“…A number of studies have highlighted the fact that high adherence may not be assumed for household water treatment practices. 10,[23][24][25][26] Water quality results reported here are generally consistent with recent studies of the effectiveness of boiling in reducing thermotolerant coliforms (TTC) by 86-99%. 6,7,9,27 We calculated a mean reduction of E. coli of 98.5% in stored boiled water samples (arithmetic mean = 1.8 log 10 , N = 369) ( Table 1).…”

Longitudinal Analysis of Cryptosporidium Species-Specific Immunoglobulin G Antibody Responses in Peruvian Children

“…Finally, while we did observe a statisti-VOL. 13,2006 DIAGNOSIS OF CRYPTOSPORIDIUM INFECTION IN CHILDREN 129 on May 10, 2018 by guest http://cvi.asm.org/ cally significant difference in levels of antibody to the 27-kDa antigen between symptomatic and asymptomatic infections, the relatively small proportion of cryptosporidiosis episodes associated with diarrhea made it difficult to accurately assess the impact of preexisting antibody on the development or severity of disease symptoms. With these limitations in mind, we have attempted to be conservative in our interpretation of the results.…”

“…However, in the developing world, where sanitation conditions are poor and clean water supplies are limited, cryptosporidiosis is commonly an illness of childhood, and reported outbreaks are rare (3,8,13). Children, especially those living under lower socioeconomic conditions, may experience repeated Cryptosporidium infections from an early age (3,25).…”

Household Characteristics Associated with Handwashing with Soap in Rural Bangladesh

“…However, in settings where diarrhea is an important cause of child mortality, the prevalence of handwashing with soap after contact with feces as assessed by structured observation is typically < 30%. [8][9][10][11] In 2007 the Government of Bangladesh, Department of Public Health Engineering in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and with support from the Department for International Development (DFID) of the British Government launched a program, SHEWA-B (Sanitation, Hygiene Education and Water supply-Bangladesh) that is among the largest intensive handwashing, hygiene/ sanitation, and water quality improvement programs ever attempted in a low-income country. In the first stage the intervention is targeting 19.6 million people in rural Bangladesh.…”