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      Combining drinking water treatment and hand washing for diarrhoea prevention, a cluster randomised controlled trial.

      Tropical Medicine & International Health
      Adolescent, Breast Feeding, Child, Child, Preschool, Diarrhea, epidemiology, prevention & control, Disinfectants, Female, Hand Disinfection, Humans, Infant, Male, Pakistan, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Prevalence, Soaps, Socioeconomic Factors, Sodium Hypochlorite, Treatment Outcome, Water Purification, methods, Water Supply, standards

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          Abstract

          To evaluate the effectiveness of point of use water treatment with flocculent-disinfectant on reducing diarrhoea and the additional benefit of promoting hand washing with soap. The study was conducted in squatter settlements of Karachi, Pakistan, where diarrhoea is a leading cause of childhood death. Interventions were randomly assigned to 47 neighbourhoods. Households in 10 neighbourhoods received diluted bleach and a water vessel; nine neighbourhoods received soap and were encouraged to wash hands; nine neighbourhoods received flocculent-disinfectant water treatment and a water vessel; 10 neighbourhoods received disinfectant-disinfectant water treatment and soap and were encouraged to wash hands; and nine neighbourhoods were followed as controls. Field workers visited households at least once a week from April to December 2003 to promote use of the interventions and to collect data on diarrhoea. Study participants in control neighbourhoods had diarrhoea on 5.2% of days. Compared to controls, participants living in intervention neighbourhoods had a lower prevalence of diarrhoea: 55% (95% CI 17%, 80%) lower in bleach and water vessel neighbourhoods, 51% (95% CI 12%, 76%) lower in hand washing promotion with soap neighbourhoods, 64% lower (95% CI 29%, 90%) in disinfectant-disinfectant neighbourhoods, and 55% (95% CI 18%, 80%) lower in disinfectant-disinfectant plus hand washing with soap neighbourhoods. With an intense community-based intervention and supplies provided free of cost, each of the home-based interventions significantly reduced diarrhoea. There was no benefit by combining hand washing promotion with water treatment.

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