Amy J. Pickering, Clair Null, Peter J. Winch, Goldberg Mangwadu et al.
Child stunting is a global problem and is only modestly responsive to dietary interventions. Numerous observational studies have shown that water quality, sanitation, and handwashing (WASH) in a household are strongly associated with linear growth of children living in the same household. We have co...
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 ...
Ayşe Ercümen, Amy J. Pickering, Laura H. Kwong, Benjamin F. Arnold et al.
in food (p < 0.05). E. coli in stored water and food increased with increasing E. coli in soil, ponds, source water and hands. We provide empirical evidence of fecal transmission in the domestic environment despite on-site sanitation. Animal feces contribute to fecal contamination, and fecal indicat...
Maya Nadimpalli, Sara Marks, María Camila Montealegre, Robert H. Gilman et al.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing public health challenge that is expected to disproportionately burden lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the coming decades. Although the contributions of human and veterinary antibiotic misuse to this crisis are well-recognized, environmental t...
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...
Amy J. Pickering, Ayşe Ercümen, Benjamin F. Arnold, Laura H. Kwong et al.
increase), while other pathways were not associated. In cross-sectional analysis, there were no associations between concurrently measured environmental contamination and diarrhea. Our findings suggest higher levels of E. coli on child hands are strongly associated with subsequent diarrheal illness ...
Amy J. Pickering, Yoshika S. Crider, Sonia Sultana, Jenna M. Swarthout et al.
BACKGROUND: Previous blinded trials of household water treatment interventions in low-income settings have failed to detect a reduction in child diarrhoea. Technological advances have enabled the development of automated in-line chlorine dosers that can disinfect drinking water without electricity, ...
Alexandria B. Boehm, Dan Wang, Ayşe Ercümen, Meghan Shea et al.
We evaluated whether provision and promotion of improved sanitation hardware (toilets and child feces management tools) reduced rotavirus and human fecal contamination of drinking water, child hands, and soil among rural Bangladeshi compounds enrolled in a cluster-randomized trial. We also measured ...
Angela Harris, Amy J. Pickering, Michael D. Harris, Solaiman Doza et al.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, the sensitivity and specificity of three human, three ruminant, and one avian source-associated QPCR microbial source tracking assays were evaluated using fecal samples collected on site. Ruminant-associated assays performed well, whereas the avian and human assays exhibited un...
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...
Yoshika S. Crider, Sonia Sultana, Leanne Unicomb, Jennifer Davis et al.
Chlorination is a low-cost, effective method for drinking water treatment, but aversion to the taste or smell of chlorinated water can limit use of chlorine treatment products. Forced choice triangle tests were used to evaluate chlorine detection and acceptability thresholds for two common types of ...
Lauren Steinbaum, Laura H. Kwong, Ayşe Ercümen, Makeda S. Negash et al.
Globally, about 1.5 billion people are infected with at least one species of soil-transmitted helminth (STH). Soil is a critical environmental reservoir of STH, yet there is no standard method for detecting STH eggs in soil. We developed a field method for enumerating STH eggs in soil and tested the...
Laura H. Kwong, Ayşe Ercümen, Amy J. Pickering, Leanne Unicomb et al.
Children are exposed to environmental contaminants by placing contaminated hands or objects in their mouths. We quantified hand- and object-mouthing frequencies of Bangladeshi children and determined if they differ from those of U.S. children to evaluate the appropriateness of applying U.S. exposure...
Erica R. Fuhrmeister, Ayşe Ercümen, Amy J. Pickering, Kaitlyn M. Jeanis et al.
increase in the concentration of the animal fecal marker (BacCow) on mothers' hands. Thus, domestic animals were important contributors to enteric pathogens in these households.
Christine P. Stewart, Kathryn G. Dewey, Audrie Lin, Amy J. Pickering et al.
Background: Anemia in young children is a global health problem. Risk factors include poor nutrient intake and poor water quality, sanitation, or hygiene. Objective: We evaluated the effects of water quality, sanitation, handwashing, and nutrition interventions on micronutrient status and anemia amo...