Availability Of Safe Drinking Water Research Articles

Prevalence and epidemiological distribution of indicators of pathogenic bacteria in households drinking water in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundEnsuring the availability of safe drinking water remains a critical challenge in developing countries, including Ethiopia. Therefore, this paper aimed to investigate the prevalence of fecal coliform and E. coli bacteria and, geographical, children availability, and seasonal exposure assessment through a meta-analysis.MethodsTwo independent review groups extensively searched internet databases for English-language research articles published between 2013 and 2023. This systematic review and meta-analysis followed PRISMA guidelines. The methodological quality of each included study was evaluated using the STROBE guidelines. Publication bias was assessed by visual inspection of a funnel plot and then tested by the Egger regression test, and meta-analysis was performed using DerSimonian and Laird random-effects models with inverse variance weighting. Subgroup analyses were also conducted to explore heterogeneity.ResultsOut of 48 potentially relevant studies, only 21 fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were considered for meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of fecal coliform and E. coli was 64% (95% CI: 56.0–71.0%, I2 = 95.8%) and 54% (95% CI: 45.7–62.3%, I2 = 94.2%), respectively. Subgroup analysis revealed that the prevalence of fecal coliform bacteria increased during the wet season (70%) compared to the dry season (60%), particularly in households with under-five children (74%) compared to all households (61%), in rural (68%) versus urban (66%) areas, and in regions with high prevalence such as Amhara (71%), Gambela (71%), and Oromia (70%). Similarly, the prevalence of E. coli was higher in households with under-five children (66%) than in all households (46%).ConclusionsThe analysis highlights the higher prevalence of fecal coliform and E. coli within households drinking water, indicating that these bacteria are a significant public health concern. Moreover, these findings emphasize the critical need for targeted interventions aimed at improving drinking water quality to reduce the risk of fecal contamination and enhance public health outcomes for susceptible groups, including households with under-five children, in particular geographical areas such as the Amhara, Gambela, and Oromia regions, as well as rural areas, at point-of-use, and during the rainy season.RegistrationThis review was registered on PROSPERO (registration ID - CRD42023448812).

Microfiltration Membrane Pore Functionalization with Primary and Quaternary Amines for PFAS Remediation: Capture, Regeneration, and Reuse.

The widespread production and use of multi-fluorinated carbon-based substances for a variety of purposes has contributed to the contamination of the global water supply in recent decades. Conventional wastewater treatment can reduce contaminants to acceptable levels, but the concentrated retentate stream is still a burden to the environment. A selective anion-exchange membrane capable of capture and controlled release could further concentrate necessary contaminants, making their eventual degradation or long-term storage easier. To this end, commercial microfiltration membranes were modified using pore functionalization to incorporate an anion-exchange moiety within the membrane matrix. This functionalization was performed with primary and quaternary amine-containing polymer networks ranging from weak to strong basic residues. Membrane loading ranged from 0.22 to 0.85 mmol/g membrane and 0.97 to 3.4 mmol/g membrane for quaternary and primary functionalization, respectively. Modified membranes exhibited a range of water permeances within approximately 45-131 LMH/bar. The removal of PFASs from aqueous streams was analyzed for both "long-chain" and "short-chain" analytes, perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorobutyric acid, respectively. Synthesized membranes demonstrated as high as 90% rejection of perfluorooctanoic acid and 50-80% rejection of perfluorobutyric acid after 30% permeate recovery. Regenerated membranes maintained the capture performance for three cycles of continuous operation. The efficiency of capture and reuse can be improved through the consideration of charge density, water flux, and influent contaminant concentration. This process is not limited by the substrate and, thus, is able to be implemented on other platforms. This research advances a versatile membrane platform for environmentally relevant applications that seek to help increase the global availability of safe drinking water.

Assessment of water, sanitation and hand hygiene practices in rural households of Tamil Nadu: A cross-sectional study.

Water is a basic human right essential to all for sustainable development. Sanitation is one of the determinants of quality of life and the human development index. Drinking unsafe water impairs health through illnesses such as diarrhoea, and untreated excreta contaminates ground waters and surface waters used for drinking, bathing and household purposes. To assess the existing facilities and practices related to drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene among household members in the rural population of Tamil Nadu and to assess whether accessibility and availability of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation under sustainable development goal 6 is being achieved in the rural population of Tamil Nadu. This community-based cross-sectional study was carried out among 200 households in the rural field practice area of the Medical College and Hospital, Thiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu. The participants were interviewed using a predesigned semi-structured questionnaire on their existing water, sanitation, and hand washing facilities and practices. Our study observed that 71.5% of households had piped water supply into their dwellings, 82% were using sanitary latrines and 28% had closed drainage for draining wastewater. Twenty-eight percent were using soap and water for hand-washing before food, and 82.5% were doing hand-washing with soap after using the toilet. In our study, the association between sanitary practices and education, occupation and socioeconomic status was statistically significant. Our study emphasized the need for strengthening health education and behaviour change communication regarding sanitation and hand hygiene practices.

Design of a Solar Distillation Still Model with Backup Heat from Biomass

Water borne pathogens caused series of diseases, and millions died each year. Therefore, availability of safe drinking water and good water sanitation is of great global importance, while this can be done through solar still distillation. The distillation process is one of the technologies for water processing and purification, and solar energy is the main source of energy that used to energize the process. Therefore, in this paper, a solar distillation still with back-up heat from Biomass has been designed with basin area of 1.045 m2 (1290 mm x 810 mm). However, various design equation were utilized during the design process. The energy requirement for evaporating water is 226 0kJ/kg. This implies that much heat energy is required to produce 1 litre of pure. For this reason, a collector of 1.044m2 area was used. This will provide sufficient energy for distillation process. The solution obtained from the Polymath 5.0 software, shows that, the day is not as intrinsic as the solution for the night. This might be due to supply of heat as concentrated heat unlike for the day when the heating increased relatively gently. It is hereby recommended that more of the machine should be develop and made available in the market to enhance a safer and more sanitize drinking water for the society.

Assessing citizen satisfaction indicators for urban public services to enhance quality of life in Sharm el-Sheikh

The quality of urban life is a crucial area of urban studies, encompassing social, environmental, and economic aspects. Sharm el-Sheikh, a popular tourist destination in Egypt, faces challenges in balancing tourism development with citizen satisfaction with public services. This study aimed to assess citizen satisfaction with key urban services in Sharm el-Sheikh and identify areas for improvement. A survey was conducted by the South Sinai Urban Observatory, employing stratified sampling to ensure a representative sample across demographics. The survey utilized a combination of closed-ended questions with a five-point Likert scale and an open-ended question for additional feedback.The analysis revealed that citizens expressed satisfaction with road and traffic services, government office services, the City Council, and security services. However, dissatisfaction was also identified in areas such as educational services, access to qualified doctors, the sanitation system, the availability of safe drinking water, and cultural services.Based on these findings, the study recommends that decision-makers in Sharm el-Sheikh prioritize addressing these areas of lower satisfaction. Regularly conducting citizen satisfaction surveys and fostering trust between citizens and the government are crucial for ongoing improvement in urban and tourism services, ultimately enhancing the city's overall quality of life.

Deep hierarchical cluster analysis for assessing the water quality indicators for sustainable groundwater

Groundwater quality assessment is a paramount aspect of ensuring the availability of safe drinking water. The conventional reliance on individual parameter thresholds often overlooks intricate interdependencies within the dataset. To overcome this, deep learning algorithms are employed to automatically extract meaningful features from multidimensional data. This innovative approach aims to capture complex relationships between water quality parameters that may be missed by traditional methods. The research identifies a significant gap in current groundwater quality assessment methodologies, emphasizing the need for a more data-driven approach. This research addresses the limitations of traditional methods by introducing a pioneering approach that integrates deep learning and hierarchical cluster analysis to identify comprehensive water quality indicators. The study collects data from diverse monitoring wells, encompassing chemical, physical, and biological parameters. By applying deep cluster analysis to the feature-extracted data, latent patterns and relationships among water quality parameters are unveiled. This clustering method reveals hidden structures within the dataset, leading to the identification of water quality indicators that consider both individual parameters and their interactions. The proposed method in this research offers an understanding of groundwater quality dynamics, contributing to the advancement of water resource management strategies. The results of the deep cluster analysis provide a more comprehensive and accurate representation of groundwater quality, enabling better-informed decision-making for sustainable water resource utilization.

Dietary Habit And Nutritional Status In Forcibly Displaced Myanmar National Adolescents

Background: Adolescence is a unique intervention point in the life-cycle for a number of reasons. Malnutrition is an important cause of adolescent morbidity & growth retardation. Appropriate feeding practice, hygiene and sanitation can reduce these consequences through maintenance of nutrition and prevention of infection.
 Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out among 268 respondents in 5, 8, 8w,18 camp situated in Ukhiya upazila, Cox’s Bazar. Data were collected by convenient sampling through face to face interview using semi-structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS 25 software.
 Results: The study found that highest number (37.7%) of the respondents were in age group of 16 to 19 years. Majority (75.7%) respondent have formal education up to primary school. Drinking water were 100% tube well water, living house were 100% kacha. Majority of the adolescents (87%) were unmarried, 58.2% had family size of 4-6 person, 95.1% were unemployed. Most (67%) of the respondents had thinness (underweight) and 7% adolescents had severe thinness (underweight). According to z-score, 23% and 7% were severely stunted. According to Food Consumption Score, 69.9% of the respondents had borderline consumption and 19.7% had poor consumption. Only 1.2% of the respondents went to bed hungry due to shortage of food. Chi-square test showed statistically significant relationship was found between nutritional status and age of the respondents (p<0.05), but no significant relationship was found between nutritional status and sex of the respondents (p>0.05).
 Conclusion: Although undernutrition was found in the most of the aspects, attention could be given to improve balanced diet, improve accommodation facilities, availability of safe drinking water, availability of education for all FDMNs living in the camp to improve overall nutritional status.
 JOPSOM 2021; 41(2):50-56

Removal of fluoride from groundwater by chemically functionalized sugarcane bagasse biochar and bagasse pellets in a fixed-bed sorption system

This study aimed to investigate the design parameters for a filter intended to remove fluoride from groundwater. Water fluoridation notably influences groundwater, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas that exacerbate the challenge of availability of safe drinking water from Groundwater resources in numerous developing nations. Experiments were conducted to determine the fluoride concentrations in groundwater sources in the arid region of Maharashtra, India. Samples were collected from seven villages in three districts of Maharashtra. This study utilized chemically functionalized sugarcane bagasse biochar adsorbent (SCBB), which is low-cost and easily accessible, to remove fluoride from groundwater in a column setup. The recommended design parameters for the packed-bed column flow rate (Q) are 100 ml min−1 and bed height (d) is 30 cm.

Evaluating the Role of GDPPer Capita, Air Pollution and Non‐Economic Factors in Determining Health Expenditure: Evidence from Asian Region Using Instrumental Variables Techniques

This study investigates the effect of income per capita, air pollution and healthcare services on health expenditure in Asian economies using annual data from 1995 to 2018. The determinants of total health expenditure and public and private sector health expenditures are estimated separately. The Generalised Methods of Moment (GMM) and Instrument Variable Quantile Panel Regression (IVQPR) techniques are employed in this study. The results explain that environmental pollution, the price of health care, urbanisation and the number of hospital beds have positive effects on total health expenditures as well as on public and private health expenditures. Interestingly, income per capita has a negative effect on health expenditure at lower quantiles and a positive at higher quantiles. The proportion of the elderly population has an adverse effect on total health expenditure, while life expectancy shows a positive effect at lower quantiles and a negative effect at higher quantiles on health expenditure. The impact of the number of physicians per capita is found to be negative and significant, while the availability of safe drinking water and education demonstrates a positive effect on health expenditure. Out‐of‐pocket expenditure and technological progress are positively associated with health expenditure. Smoking is a significant determinant of government health expenditure, but it is difficult to determine the trend of smoking prevalence in Asian economies. The outcomes of this study provide some important insights to policymakers, which can be used to design a more efficient healthcare sector in Asian countries.

Enhanced Industrial Dye Degradation and Antibacterial Activity Supported by the Molecular Docking Study of Yttrium and Carbon Sphere-Doped Lanthanum Oxide Nanostructures.

As the population grows, the scientific community remains focused on researching new materials, methods, and devices to ensure the availability of safe drinking water. The main aim of this research was to decrease the recombination rate of the charge carriers of La2O3 and enhance the catalytic and antimicrobial activity by employing Y/Cs- doped La2O3, respectively. In the current study, different concentrations of yttrium (Y) and a fixed amount of carbon spheres (Cs) doped into lanthanum oxide (La2O3) nanostructures (NSs) were synthesized by the coprecipitation technique. Cs are used as a cocatalyst as they have a high surface area and small size attributed to increased active sites and decreased recombination rate. Moreover, Y was further incorporated as it activates the generation of reactive oxygen species in the inhibition zone, enhancing the antibacterial activity and reducing the emission intensity. Advanced techniques were utilized to determine the structural properties, optical emission and absorption, elemental composition, and d-spacing of the synthesized samples. The reported ternary catalyst works efficiently, improving the catalytic activity and bactericidal potential. Moreover, in silico molecular docking studies, Cs-doped La2O3 and Y/Cs-doped La2O3 nanostructures toward DNA gyrase Escherichia coli showed good efficacy for antibacterial activity.

The Changing Climate Is Changing Safe Drinking Water, Impacting Health: A Case in the Southwestern Coastal Region of Bangladesh (SWCRB)

This study focuses on investigating the impact of climate change on the availability of safe drinking water and human health in the Southwest Coastal Region of Bangladesh (SWCRB). Additionally, it explores local adaptation approaches aimed at addressing these challenges. The research employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to gather data. Qualitative data were collected through various means such as case studies, workshops, focus group discussions (FGDs), interviews, and key informant interviews (KIIs). The study specifically collected qualitative data from 12 unions in the Shyamnagar Upazila. On the other hand, through the quantitative method, we collected respondents’ answers through a closed-ended questionnaire survey from 320 respondents from nine unions in the first phase of this study. In the next phase, we also collected data from the three most vulnerable unions of Shyamnagar Upazila, namely Poddo Pukur, Gabura, and Burigoalini, where 1579 respondents answered questions regarding safe drinking water and health conditions due to climate change. The findings of the study indicate that local communities in the region acknowledge the significant impact of sea-level rise (SLR) on freshwater sources and overall well-being, primarily due to increased salinity. Over 70% of the respondents identified gastrointestinal issues, hypertension, diarrhea, malnutrition, and skin diseases as major waterborne health risks arising from salinity and lack of access to safe water. Among the vulnerable groups, women and children were found to be particularly susceptible to waterborne diseases related to salinity. While the study highlights the presence of certain adaptation measures against health-related problems, such as community clinics and health centers at the upazila level, as well as seeking healthcare from local and paramedical doctors, it notes that these measures are insufficient. In terms of safe drinking water, communities have adopted various adaptation strategies, including pond excavation to remove saline water (partially making it potable), implementing pond sand filters, rainwater harvesting, and obtaining potable water from alternative sources. However, these efforts alone do not fully address the challenges associated with ensuring safe drinking water.

Effects of Availability and Access to Safe Drinking Water on Students’ Academic Performance in Secondary Schools in Muhoroni Sub-County, Kenya

Access to improved sanitation is an important component of human health and wellbeing. Minimum requirements for safe WASH in schools are not provided in most rural schools in Kenya. The current paper investigated the effects of availability and access to safe drinking water on students’ academic performance in secondary school in Muhoroni Sub-County, Kenya. Descriptive research design and mixed methodology was used. The target population was 2354 form three students and 23 teachers. Krejcie and Morgan sample size determination formula was used to obtain a sample size of 331 respondents. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data. Validity was determined by consulting research supervisors while reliability was determined through the use of Cronbach Alpha. Quantitative data were analysed by SPSS (version 25) and the findings presented using frequencies and percentages while qualitative data were thematically classified and arranged before they were reported in narrations and quotations. The study found that 65.4% of the learners reported that they were using safe drinking water in their schools. In addition, 63.3% of the study participants reported that their schools had reliable, sufficient and clean water supply. The study concluded that availability of safe drinking water at schools reduces the likelihood of water-related illnesses, such as diarrhea or other waterborne diseases. In addition, availability to sanitation facilities influence students’ academic performance among secondary school students. This study will give the current WASH scenario of schools in the study area that can help concerned authorities abide by WASH guidelines to improve the school’s WASH situation.

Water Quality Index and Human Health Risk Assessment of Drinking Water in Selected Urban Areas of a Mega City.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the quality of drinking water and assess the potential health hazards due to water contaminants in selected urban areas of Lahore, Pakistan. Water samples were collected from ten sites and analyzed for different physico-chemical parameters including turbidity, color, pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), nitrates, fluoride, residual chlorine, and total hardness. Additionally, heavy metal (arsenic) and microbial parameters (E. coli) were also determined in the water samples. Drinking water quality evaluation indices, including the water quality index (WQI) for physico-chemical and biological parameters and human health risk assessment (HHRA) for heavy metal were estimated using the analytical results of the target parameters. It was found in most of the areas that the levels of arsenic, fluoride, TDS, and residual chlorine were higher than those recommended by the National Environmental Quality Standard (NEQS) and World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. In addition to the physico-chemical parameters, microbial content (E. coli) was also found in the drinking water samples of the selected areas. Statistical analysis of the results indicated that levels of target parameters in drinking water samples are significantly different between sampling sites. The WQI for all physico-chemical and microbial parameters indicated that drinking water in most of the areas was unfit and unsuitable (WQI > 100) for drinking purposes except for the water of Bhatti Gate and Chota Gaon Shahdara with a WQI of 87 and 91, respectively. Drinking water in these areas had a very poor WQI rating. According to HHRA, drinking water from the selected sites was found to be of high risk to children and adults. The carcinogenic risk of arsenic indicated that all samples were of high risk to both adults and children (4.60 and 4.37 × 10-3, respectively). Regular monitoring of drinking water quality is essential, and proactive measures must be implemented to ensure the treatment and availability of safe drinking water in urban areas.

Packaged drinking water in Indonesia: The determinants of household in the selection and management process

Abstract The availability of safe drinking water remains a challenge in Indonesia. Packaged water in bottles or refillable containers has been increasingly popular as an alternative to good-quality drinking water. This study aimed to identify the reasons for the selection, management, and factors that influenced bottled and refilled water use in Indonesia. A cross-sectional Household Drinking Water Quality (HDWQ) study was conducted in 34 Indonesian provinces in 2020 involving 7,236 households as analyzed samples. The data analysis also included the 2020 National Socioeconomic Survey data to obtain households' socioeconomic status. As many as 68 and 63% of households consumed good-quality bottled and refilled water, respectively. Health was the reason for 29% of households choosing good-quality bottled water, while 49% of households selected good-quality refilled water out of habit. Several factors related to the consumption of fine-quality packaged water were high social status, water physical quality, ease of access, health reason, monthly expenses to buy drinking water, and storing water in manufactured containers. Packaged water, whether bottled or refilled, does not guarantee good physical and chemical quality. Therefore, to ensure good quality, the water storage should be kept from contamination.

Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Recyclable Composites Prepared from Bio-Olefins and Industrial Waste

Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) production consumes tremendous amounts of fresh water and energy and releases vast quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere. Not only would an alternative to OPC whose production requires no water, releases little CO2, and consumes less energy represent a transformative advance in the pursuit of industrial decarbonization, but the greater availability of safe drinking water would lead to significantly improved public health, particularly among vulnerable populations most at risk from contaminated water supply. For any OPC alternative to be adopted on any meaningful scale, however, its structural capabilities must meet or exceed those of OPC. An inverse vulcanization of brown grease, sunflower oil, and elemental sulfur (5:5:90 weight ratio) was successfully modified to afford the high-sulfur-content material SunBG90 in quantities > 1 kg, as was necessary for standardized ASTM and ISO testing. Water absorption (ASTM C140) and thermal conductivity (ISO 8302) values for SunBG90 (<1 wt% and 0.126 W·m−1·K−1, respectively) were 84% and 94% lower than those for OPC, respectively, suggesting that SunBG90 would be more resistant against freeze-thaw and thermal stress damage than OPC. Consequently, not only does SunBG90 represent a more environmentally friendly material than OPC, but its superior thermomechanical properties suggest that it could be a more environmentally robust material on its own merits, particularly for outdoor structural applications involving significant exposure to water and seasonal or day/night temperature swings.

A challenge in washing water with the sun: 24h of SODIS fails to inactivate Acanthamoeba castellanii cysts and internalized Pseudomonas aeruginosa under strong real sun conditions.

Despite access to drinking water being a basic human right, the availability of safe drinking water remains a privilege that many do not have and as a result, many lives are lost each year due to waterborne diseases associated with the consumption of biologically unsafe water. To face this situation, different low-cost household drinking water treatment technologies (HDWT) have been developed, and among them is solar disinfection (SODIS). Despite the effectiveness of SODIS and the epidemiological gains being consistently documented in the literature, there is a lack of evidence of the effectiveness of the batch-SODIS process against protozoan cysts as well as their internalized bacteria under real sun conditions. This work evaluated the effectiveness of the batch-SODIS process on the viability of Acanthamoeba castellanii cysts, and internalized Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Dechlorinated tap water contaminated with 5.6 × 103 cysts/L, contained in PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, was exposed for 8h a day to strong sunlight (531-1083W/m2 of maximum insolation) for 3 consecutive days. The maximum water temperature inside the reactors ranged from 37 to 50°C. Cyst viability was assessed by inducing excystment on non-nutrient agar, or in water with heat-inactivated Escherichia coli. After sun exposure for 0, 8, 16 and 24h, the cysts remained viable and without any perceptible impairment in their ability to excyst. 3 and 5.5 log CFU/mL of P. aeruginosa were detected in water containing untreated and treated cysts, respectively, after 3days of incubation at 30°C. The batch-SODIS process is unable to inactivate A. castellanii cysts as well as its internalized bacteria. Although the use of batch SODIS by communities should continue to be encouraged, SODIS-disinfected water should be consumed within 3days.

Accessibility to Safe Drinking Water and its Impact on Health A Case Study of EAG States and Assam

The access to basic household amenities like availability of safe drinking water, toilet facility and electricity etc. are critical determinants of well being of people. Over the last three decades there have been huge changes in availability of these facilities with large regional differences. Being a country of 246,692,667 number of households, in India only 85.5 percent of households have access to safe drinking water including within premises, near premises and away from the premises in 2011 while the same was only 77 percent during 2001(Census of India, 2011). In this paper an attempt has been made to investigate the condition prevailing in the eight EAG (Empowered Action Group) states which includes Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Assam. The paper uses data from the Annual Health Survey 2011 (data of diarrhea) and Census 2011 (data on household amenities). The district level pattern of household’s accessibility to safe drinking water and tap water from treated source for rural and urban areas has also been analysed for the study. The result shows that the problem of safe drinking water has two interfaces. One in terms of the source of drinking water and the other is distance from the source. Study shows that most of the districts have access to safe drinking water although there is a rural urban gap still persisting. Urban areas have better coverage of provision to safe drinking water than rural counterparts. The same scenario becomes much worse for household’s access to tap water from treated source. The other finding indicates a possible association between safe drinking water and diarrhea.

Household Environment Status and Infant Mortality: A Study of West Bengal

The factors influencing infant mortality have been documented in a number studies. A number of individual, biological and household environmental factors were found to be the significant predictor of infant mortality in any human setting. Most existing studies on early childhood mortality in India were based on census data. Using the data from second and third rounds of District Level Household and Facility Survey of India this paper assessed the pattern and degree of association of infant mortality with household environment status at the district level in West Bengal. The estimates of infant mortality rate for districts of West Bengal were derived based on birth history data. The household environment status for each district was determined based on three selected household environment factors, namely, availability of toilet facility, availability of safe drinking water and existence of pucca house. Key findings showed that the northern and western districts of this state were backward in terms of household environment status and mostly the districts of those regions had higher levels of infant mortality. The association of availability of toilet facility with infant mortality was found to be significant and stronger, compared to that of other two household factors.

Analyzing the Health Status of Slum Dwellers: An Evidence of Lahore, Pakistan

Background: Miserable status of health and public health is one of the major problems of more than 1 billion people living in slums across the world. Most of the governments, do not pay due attention. Purpose: Current study is especially devised to highlight the major problems of slum population in relation with health and public health so that better policy measures might be suggested. The second most populous city of Pakistan is Lahore and it is the home of about 27 million people, slums area of Lahore were chosen as population. Methodology: Through stratified sampling technique 250 households from ten slums were chosen as a sample. Inferential and descriptive statistical techniques have been used study in hand. The logistic regression model has been used to analyze the impact of important socio-economic variables on the health status of the family. Results: From descriptive analysis, we know that about 73 percent of the slum residents have no access to even basic health facilities, 32 percent of the slum children are not immunized, 72 percent of the slum women give birth to children without any proper assistance and 56 percent do not receive antenatal check – ups during pregnancy. Further, about 66 percent of the dwellers have no access to safe drinking water while majority face unhygienic and poor solid waste management status. Conclusion: The results of regression model shows that per capita income, education level of the family head, availability of safe drinking water and employment status of the family have positive while smoking and drinking leave negative impact on the health status of the dwellers. The findings address the authorities concerned to take holistic and practical measures for betterment of human development. Keywords: Slums, Antenatal Care, Basic Health Facilities, Safe Water, Immunization, Solid Waste Management

Age Group-Specific Assessment of Changing Seroepidemiology of Hepatitis A Virus Infection in North India.

Introduction Routine immunization against hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection has not been warranted in India, but an epidemiological shift from hyperendemicity to intermediate endemicity has been detected in recent years. The present studywas planned to gather theage group-specificseroprevalence data of hepatitis A IgG antibodies in various age groupsandevaluateany early trends of seroepidemiological shift. Method This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study. The detection of IgG antibodies for hepatitis A was done using an HAV Ab kit (Dia.Pro, Milan, Italy) in sera of individuals from >1 to 80 years of age and consenting to participate. Data on sociodemographic factors and potentially predisposing factors of HAV was collected on a predesigned questionnaire. At the time of final analysis, patients were divided into three groups children one to <18 years, adults ≥18 to <60 years, and old ≥60 to 80 years for comparative analysis. Result A total of 1,250 patients were included in the final analysis (129 children, 928 adults, and 193 old). The male/female ratio of the study participants was 1.4:1. The majority (85%) of them came from rural and semi-urban areas. They generally had lower socioeconomic status (SES) with poor literacy rates. Most of the enrolled cases(n=800/1,250, 64%) reported the use of groundwater, and 58.7% (n=734/1,250) consume water without any purification. Of the study participants,90.8% reported the use of toilets for defecation, and 96.7% of the cases use soap for handwashing after defecation. The majority of adult (90%) and old age (99%) participants were seropositive for anti-HAV IgG antibodies as compared to children (80%). No significant differences were observed in the seropositivity rates and the SES class of the study participants. Conclusion About 20% of children did not have anti-HAV IgG antibodies in the present study, indicating that they are not exposed to HAV. This could bebecause of their better living conditions such as the availability of safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene. We support the current guidelines of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP), which recommends immunization for hepatitis A vaccination at 12 months of age. Adult vaccination is notneeded in North India.