scholarly journals Bacterial contamination of stored water and stored food: a potential source of diarrhoeal disease in West Africa

1989 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kåre Mølbak ◽  
Niels Højlyng ◽  
Søren Jepsen ◽  
Knud Gaarslev

SUMMARYThe food and water hygiene in two Liberian communities was studied in a house-to-house diarrhoea survey. The level of contamination with enterobacteria of drinking water stored in the households was significantly higher than at the water sources. Food hygiene standards were low, particularly in the urban slum where storage of cooked food for long periods led to bacterial multiplication at high levels. Infant foods were particularly heavily contaminated. It is concluded that when water supply programmes are planned, the presence of other risk factors for water-related diseases should be investigated. To ensure maximum health benefits, water projects should as a rule be accompanied by other interventions.

Author(s):  
Ajinkya J. J. Niwal ◽  
Muralidhar P. Tambe ◽  
S. P. Rao ◽  
Malangori A. Parande

Background: One in three adults worldwide has high blood pressure and proportion increases with age. Detecting high blood pressure is easy. Hence a study for prevalence of hypertension was conducted in an urban slum of Pune, Maharashtra.Methods: The study was conducted in an urban slum field practice area exclusively under the community medicine department of a tertiary care hospital during the period of February 2014- July 2014. Overall 1043 people fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were interviewed, and anthropometric measurements were taken, followed by blood pressure readings and awareness of own hypertensive status. Data was compiled, edited, classified, and analyzed. The prevalence of hypertensive patients was obtained and physical and behavioral risk factors were analyzed for association.Results: The prevalence of hypertension in adults above 18 years of age was 25.6% with mean age of hypertensive patients was 48.58±15.75 yrs. Hypertension was significantly associated with age, habit of adding extra salt to cooked food, family history, BMI and consumption of smokeless form of tobacco among the study participants. Hypertension was not significantly associated with gender and religion of the participants. Of the 267 hypertensives, 40.82% were aware of their hypertensive status and amongst those aware 61.46% were on anti-hypertensives.Conclusions: Hypertension is a public health problem affecting slum population as well. It is significantly associated with risk factors, which are modifiable. The awareness of hypertensive status is low, the under treatment is lower. The population in slum, with its poor literacy, low awareness and income levels provides an opportunity to make an intervention necessary as well as challenging.


1970 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Hussain Shar ◽  
Yasmeen Faiz Kazi ◽  
Irshad Hussain Soomro

To assess the bacteriological quality 768 drinking water samples were collected from different locations in Khairpur City, Sindh, Pakistan over a period of two years from January 2006 to December 2007. The study reveals that out of 768 drinking water samples 567 (73.83%) samples were found to be contaminated with total coliform among them 85 (11.06%) found in the January-March period, 182 (23.70%) in April-June period, 188 (24.47%) in July-September, 112 (14.58%) in October-December period. Faecal coliform was found in 351 (45.70%) water sample, in which 49 (15.80%) occurred during January-March, 137 (17.83%) during April-June, 136 (17.71%) during July-September and 69 (8.98%) during September-December. It can be concluded from the results of the present study that bacteriological quality of two-third drinking water in Khairpur City is not safe as the water is the potential source of diarrhoeal disease agents. Keywords: Drinking water; Khairpur City; Faecal pollution; DiarrhoeaDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjm.v25i1.4862 Bangladesh J Microbiol, Volume 25, Number 1, June 2008, pp 69-72


1959 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth J. McKillop

1. An examination of eighty-nine samples of uncooked and thirty-eight samples of cooked food purchased by one particular hospital showed that the purchased food was bacteriologically clean.2. A similar examination of 173 samples of food after it was cooked and prepared for serving in the hospital kitchens showed that, with the exception of cold chicken, the bacterial flora was greatly reduced by cooking. Ten of forty-six samples of cold chicken, however, were contaminated with fairly large numbers ofCl. welchii.3. An investigation into the cooking and handling of the fowls indicated that contamination of the cooked fowls with kitchen dust was a probable explanation for the presence ofCl. welchii.4. Immediate refrigeration of the fowls, well separated on shallow trays, was shown to be a satisfactory method of preventing the growth of contaminatingCl. welchiito any dangerous extent.5. Six outbreaks of food poisoning, in which there was an association between cold chicken and the clinical symptoms ofCl. welchiifood poisoning, are reported and discussed.I have pleasure in thanking Dr Betty Hobbs of the Food Hygiene Laboratory of the Public Health Laboratory Service at Colindale for the serological typing of numerous strains ofCl. welchii; Mr D. B. Colquhoun for assistance with the phage-typing of the staphylococci; Mr G. Kerr for the photography; and the kitchen staff in the hospital concerned for making possible the numerous samplings of food and the other inquiries into the day-to-day affairs of the hospital catering department.


Author(s):  
Thandi Kapwata ◽  
Angela Mathee ◽  
Wouter le Roux ◽  
Caradee Wright

Diarrhoeal disease is a significant contributor to child morbidity and mortality, particularly in the developing world. Poor sanitation, a lack of personal hygiene and inadequate water supplies are known risk factors for diarrhoeal disease. Since risk factors may vary by population or setting, we evaluated the prevalence of diarrhoeal disease at the household level using a questionnaire to better understand household-level risk factors for diarrhoea in selected rural areas in South Africa. In a sub-sample of dwellings, we measured the microbial quality of drinking water. One in five households had at least one case of diarrhoea during the previous summer. The most widespread source of drinking water was a stand-pipe (inside yard) (45%) followed by an indoor tap inside the dwelling (29%). Storage of water was common (97%) with around half of households storing water in plastic containers with an opening large enough to fit a hand through. After adjusting for confounders, the occurrence of diarrhoea was statistically significantly associated with sourcing water from an indoor tap (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 2.73, 95% CI: 2.73, 1.14–6.56) and storing cooked/perishable food in non-refrigerated conditions (AOR: 2.17, 95% CI: 2.17, 1.44–3.26). The highest total coliform counts were found in water samples from kitchen containers followed by stand-pipes. Escherichia coli were most often detected in samples from stand-pipes and kitchen containers. One in four households were at risk of exposure to contaminated drinking water, increasing the susceptibility of the study participants to episodes of diarrhoea. It is imperative that water quality meets guideline values and routine monitoring of quality of drinking water is done to minimise diarrhoea risk in relevant rural communities. The security of water supply in rural areas should be addressed as a matter of public health urgency to avoid the need for water storage.


1990 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. Henry ◽  
Y. Patwary ◽  
S. R. A. Huttly ◽  
K. M. A. Aziz

SUMMARYThe aim of this study was to determine what weaning foods and food preparation practices expose children to a high risk of diarrhoeal disease through exposure to a contaminated diet. Bacterial contamination of 897 food and 896 drinking water samples was assessed in a water and santitation intervention project.The geometric mean of faecal coliforms per g or ml was 7·5 x 103 in left-over rice, 1·4 x 102 in other types of boiled rice, 2·5 x 102 in milk, 4·8 in household drinking water, and 3·5 in bread. Multiplication of faecal coliforms occurred when there was a delay of more than 4 h between preparation and consumption of food. All samples were more contaminated in the rainy than in the dry season. Strategies to reduce contamination should therefore focus on ‘wet’ foods, early consumption after preparation, and re–heating of left–over foods. Understanding the reasons for the faulty practices is also essential to the formulation of effective measures.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Tsai ◽  
Sheillah Simiyu ◽  
Jane Mumma ◽  
Rose Evalyne Aseyo ◽  
Oliver Cumming ◽  
...  

Pediatric diarrheal disease remains the 2nd most common cause of preventable illness and death among children under the age of five, especially in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). However, there is limited information regarding the role of food in pathogen transmission due to measuring infant food contaminations in LMICs. For this study, we examined the frequency of enteric pathogen occurrence and co-occurrence in 127 weaning infant foods in Kisumu, Kenya using a multi-pathogen rt-PCR diagnostic tool, and assessed household food hygiene risk factors for contamination. Bacterial, viral, and protozoa enteric pathogen DNA and RNA were detected in 62% of the infant weaning food samples collected, with 37% of foods containing more than one pathogen type. Multivariable generalized linear mixed model analysis indicated type of infant food best explained the presence and diversity of enteric pathogens in infant food, while most household food hygiene risk factors considered in this study were not significantly associated with pathogen contamination. Specifically, cow's milk was significantly more likely to contain a pathogen (adjusted Risk Ratio=14.4; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.78-116.1) and contained 2.35 more types of pathogens (adjusted Risk Ratio=2.35; 95% CI 1.67-3.29) than porridge. Our study demonstrates that infants in this low-income urban setting are frequently exposed to diarrhoeagenic pathogens in food and suggests that interventions are needed to prevent foodborne transmission of pathogens to infants.


Author(s):  
K. V. S. Prasad ◽  
Anil Kumar Bathula ◽  
R. Nageswara Rao ◽  
Satya Kishore

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