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Environmental sanitation, food and water contamination and diarrhoea in rural Bangladesh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

F. J. Henry*
Affiliation:
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
S. R. A. Huttly
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Y. Patwary
Affiliation:
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
K. M. A. Aziz
Affiliation:
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
*
*Address for correspondence and reprints: Dr Fitzroy Henry, HIID, 1 Eliot Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
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Summary

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This study examined the role of food and water contamination in a health impact evaluation of a water and sanitation intervention project. Although lower diarrhoea rates were found in the improved area no consistent difference in food and water contamination was observed between areas. Furthermore, no relationship was found between contamination and diarrhoea in either area, even after controlling for the nutritional status of children. These results imply that other vehicles of transmission might be more important than food and water in diarrhoeal transmission. The focus of interventions should therefore be on changing behaviours to improve overall hygiene.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

References

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