Stephen P. Luby, Mahbubur Rahman, Benjamin F. Arnold, Leanne Unicomb et al.
BACKGROUND: Diarrhoea and growth faltering in early childhood are associated with subsequent adverse outcomes. We aimed to assess whether water quality, sanitation, and handwashing interventions alone or combined with nutrition interventions reduced diarrhoea or growth faltering. METHODS: The WASH B...
Benjamin F. Arnold, Clair Null, Stephen P. Luby, Leanne Unicomb et al.
INTRODUCTION: Enteric infections are common during the first years of life in low-income countries and contribute to growth faltering with long-term impairment of health and development. Water quality, sanitation, handwashing and nutritional interventions can independently reduce enteric infections ...
Susana Vaz Nery, Amy J. Pickering, Ebba Abate, Abraham Asmare et al.
The transmission soil transmitted helminths (STH) occurs via ingestion of or contact with infective stages present in soil contaminated with human faeces. It follows therefore that efforts to reduce faecal contamination of the environment should help to reduce risk of parasite exposure and improveme...
Wolf‐Peter Schmidt, Benjamin F. Arnold, Sophie Boisson, Bernd Genser et al.
BACKGROUND: Diarrhoea remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality but is difficult to measure in epidemiological studies. Challenges include the diagnosis based on self-reported symptoms, the logistical burden of intensive surveillance and the variability of diarrhoea in space, time and perso...
Sheela Sinharoy, Thomas Clasen, Reynaldo Martorell
Child linear growth impairment, particularly stunting, remains a global health challenge. Stunting is defined as a height-for-age Z-score more than two SDs below the WHO child growth standards reference median for age and sex. The number of children younger than 5 years who are stunted was 59 millio...
Ayşe Ercümen, Amy J. Pickering, Laura H. Kwong, Andrew Mertens et al.
Sanitation improvements have had limited effectiveness in reducing the spread of fecal pathogens into the environment. We conducted environmental measurements within a randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh that implemented individual and combined water treatment, sanitation, handwashing (WSH) an...
Matthew A. French, Fiona Barker, Ruzka R. Taruc, Ansariadi Ansariadi et al.
BACKGROUND: The intense interactions between people, animals and environmental systems in urban informal settlements compromise human and environmental health. Inadequate water and sanitation services, compounded by exposure to flooding and climate change risks, expose inhabitants to environmental c...
Ayşe Ercümen, Andrew Mertens, Benjamin F. Arnold, Jade Benjamin‐Chung et al.
Water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions have varying effectiveness in reducing fecal contamination in the domestic environment; delivering them in combination could yield synergies. We conducted environmental assessments within a randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh that implemented single...
Fiona Majorin, Belén Torondel, Gabrielle Ka Seen Chan, Thomas Clasen
BACKGROUND: Diarrhoea and soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections represent a large disease burden worldwide, particularly in low-income countries. As the aetiological agents associated with diarrhoea and STHs are transmitted through faeces, the safe containment and management of human excreta ha...
Abu Mohd Naser, Mahbubur Rahman, Leanne Unicomb, Solaiman Doza et al.
Background Sodium (Na + ) in saline water may increase blood pressure ( BP ), but potassium (K + ), calcium (Ca 2+ ), and magnesium (Mg 2+ ) may lower BP . We assessed the association between drinking water salinity and population BP . Methods and Results We pooled 6487 BP measurements from 2 cohort...
Thomas Clasen, Tanveer Saeed, Sophie Boisson, Paul Edmondson et al.
We assessed the microbiologic effectiveness of sodium dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC) tablets used on a routine basis at the household level by a vulnerable population. In a 4-month trial in Dhaka, Bangladesh, one half of the 100 participating households received NaDCC tablets and instructions on how t...
Faruqe Hussain, Thomas Clasen, Shahinoor Akter, Victoria Bawel et al.
BACKGROUND: In rural Bangladesh, India and elsewhere, pour-flush pit latrines are the most common sanitation system. When a single pit latrine becomes full, users must empty it themselves and risk exposure to fresh feces, pay an emptying service to remove pit contents or build a new latrine. Double ...
Thomas Clasen, Jamie Bartram, John M. Colford, Stephen P. Luby et al.
ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVCorrespondence/Rebut...Correspondence/RebuttalNEXTComment on "Household Water Treatment in Poor Populations: Is There Enough Evidence for Scaling up Now?"Thomas Clasen, Jamie Bartram, John Colford, Stephen Luby, Robert Quick, and Mark SobseyView Author Information Lo...
Mahbubur Rahman, Sania Ashraf, Leanne Unicomb, AKM Mainuddin et al.
BACKGROUND: Researchers typically report more on the impact of public health interventions and less on the degree to which interventions were followed implementation fidelity. We developed and measured fidelity indicators for the WASH Benefits Bangladesh study, a large-scale efficacy trial, in order...
Abu Mohd Naser, Leanne Unicomb, Solaiman Doza, Kazi Matin Ahmed et al.
INTRODUCTION: Saltwater intrusion and salinisation have contributed to drinking water scarcity in many coastal regions globally, leading to dependence on alternative sources for water supply. In southwest coastal Bangladesh, communities have few options but to drink brackish groundwater which has be...
Abu Mohd Naser, Solaiman Doza, Mahbubur Rahman, Leanne Unicomb et al.
BACKGROUND: Drinking-water salinity has been associated with high blood pressure (BP) among communities in south-west coastal Bangladesh. We evaluated whether access to water from managed aquifer recharge (MAR)-a hydrogeological intervention to lower groundwater salinity by infiltrating rainwater in...
Wolf‐Peter Schmidt, Bernd Genser, Maurício L. Barreto, Thomas Clasen et al.
BACKGROUND: Measuring recurrent infections such as diarrhoea or respiratory infections in epidemiological studies is a methodological challenge. Problems in measuring the incidence of recurrent infections include the episode definition, recall error, and the logistics of close follow up. Longitudina...
Abu Mohd Naser, Mahbubur Rahman, Leanne Unicomb, Solaiman Doza et al.
Abu Mohd Naser, Mahbubur Rahman, Leanne Unicomb, Sarker Masud Parvez et al.
This study explores the associations of drinking rainwater with mineral intake and cardiometabolic health in the Bangladeshi population. We pooled 10030 person-visit data on drinking water sources, blood pressure (BP) and 24-h urine minerals. Fasting blood glucose (FBG) was measured in 3724 person-v...
Maryann G. Delea, Corey Nagel, Evan Thomas, Amal Halder et al.
Background: Health improvements realized through sanitation are likely achieved through high levels of facilities utilization by all household members. However, measurements of sanitation often rely on either the presence of latrines, which does not guarantee use, or respondent-reported utilization ...