 |
|
Safe Water System (SWS) - Where Has the SWS Been Used?
- Guinea-Bissau
|
|
|
| Safe Water Home
> Where?
> Guinea-Bissau
|
|
Project Partners
 CDC
Simão-Mendes National Hospital
 Target
Populations and Location
Cholera ward at a hospital
Project Implementation
Date
November 1997
Project Design
Research project to determine whether the SWS could
prevent bacterial contamination of bulk oral rehydration
solution.
Intervention Elements
CDC safe water storage vessel.
Locally available commercial bleach.
Education for hospital staff on use of the Safe
Water System.
Results of Project Evaluations
 Oral
rehydration solution (ORS) is lifesaving therapy
for cholera and pediatric diarrhea. During a cholera
epidemic in Guinea Bissau, the microbiologic quality
of ORS prepared in buckets at a hospital was evaluated
and a simple intervention using special vessels
for disinfecting tap water with bleach and for preparing,
storing, and dispensing ORS was tested.
Few coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli
were recovered from tap water; however, pre-intervention
ORS contained numerous bacteria including E.
coli and toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O1.
In contrast, ORS samples from intervention vessels
had few or no coliform bacteria, no E. coli,
and no V. cholerae. Mean pre-intervention
counts of coliform bacteria (3.4 x 107
colony-forming units (cfu)/100 ml)  and
E. coli (6.2 x 103 cfu/100 ml)
decreased significantly during the intervention
period to 3.6 x 102 cfu/100 ml and 0
cfu/100 ml, respectively (P < 0.001).
This simple system using bleach disinfectant and
special storage vessels prevents bacterial contamination
of ORS and reduces the risk of nosocomial transmission
of cholera and other enteric pathogens.
For More Information
- CDC: safewater@cdc.gov
Daniels N, Simons L, Rodrigues A, Gunnlaugsson G,
Forester T, Wells J, Hutwagner L, Tauxe R, Mintz
E. First
do no harm: Making oral rehydration solution (ORS)
safer in a cholera epidemic 
PDF 371KB. American Journal of Tropical Medicine
and Hygiene. 1999; 60:1051-5.
An additional, unrelated study was conducted by
CDC in Guinea Bissau. This study investigated the
effectiveness of shot chlorination of wells, and
the results were published in the International
Journal of Environmental Health Research. Rowe A,
Angulo F, Roberts L, Tauxe R. Chlorinating
well water with liquid bleach was not an effective
water disinfection strategy in Guinea-Bissau
PDF 217KB. International Journal of Envirnomental
Health Research. 1998; 8:339-40.
|
Some documents are available here in Adobe Acrobat Reader
format (PDF). To view or print them, you must have the
free Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer.
Please click HERE
for more information and to download Acrobat Reader. |
| |
|
| |
| |
Date:
July 24, 2006
Content source: National Center for Infectious Diseases
|
|
|
|
