A study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that physical barriers, such as regular handwashing and wearing masks, gloves and gowns, may be more effective than drugs to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses such as influenza and SARS.

Searching through 51 studies, the researchers found that simple, low-cost physical measures should be given higher priority in national pandemic contingency plans. The studies compared any intervention to prevent animal-to-human or human-to-human transmission of respiratory viruses, such as isolation, quarantine, social distancing, barriers, personal protection and hygiene, to doing nothing or to other types of intervention, excluding vaccines and antiviral drugs.

The researchers found that handwashing and wearing masks, gloves and gowns were effective individually in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses, and were even more effective when combined. This study follows another that was published in the Cochrane Library Journal last month which found that just soap and water to be a simple and effective way to curb the spread of respiratory viruses, from everyday cold viruses to deadly pandemic strains.

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Handwashing More Useful Than Drugs in Virus Control

According to a large study conducted in Spain, an international team of scientists has found that higher water consumption is associated with lower risk of bladder cancer, regardless of trihalomethanes (THMs).

Many water treatment systems use chlorine to disinfect drinking water. However, chlorine reacts with dissolved organic matter in water to create THMs, which have been associated with excess risk of bladder cancer in people who drink chlorinated water. The researchers examined the association between total fluid and water consumption and bladder cancer risk, while also examining the interaction between water intake and THM exposure.

The researchers conducted a hospital-based case-control study of bladder cancer in multiple centers in Spain. The results suggest that drinking more water, even from chlorinated sources with high THM levels, is beneficial in reducing risk of bladder cancer. The authors found a 53% lower risk of bladder cancer in people who drank 1,400 mL or more water per day compared with those who drank less than 400 mL per day after adjusting for known and potential confounders.

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Study Suggests Water Consumption Benefit Outweighs Trihalomethanes

In a recently completed three-part study, researchers at the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, suggest that water quality monitoring needs to be tailor-made for each community. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, monitoring often ignore local water conditions and history. The study, published in the Springer journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, indicates that taking local geography into account would result in testing that would be at least as effective as current testing, and also less expensive.

The University of Iowa College study looked at 19 Iowa community water supplies influenced by surface water. Noting that testing for bacteria is outside the scope of the study, researchers used several decades of data collected by community water systems, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to show that surface water is easily contaminated by agricultural sources. Based on this information, the researchers developed 19 different lists of the contaminants that one would expect to find in each of the 19 communities. Researchers used the lists to test the water supplies for those pollutants instead of the 90-plus contaminants regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The study showed that essentially the same information obtained from current compliance monitoring requirements can be gained at approximately one-eighth the cost by implementing place-based monitoring. In this study, place-based monitoring out-performed the Safe Drinking Water Act monitoring requirements in terms of percent detections, missed only a small proportion of detections below the 50% of the maximum contaminant level (MCL) set by the EPA, and captured all detections above 50% of the MCL.

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Researchers Say Place "Affects" Quality of Drinking Water

Two weeks ago the United Nations warned of a potential epidemic of deadly cholera in Baghdad, noting that there had been more than 101 cases. Similarly, this past August a cholera outbreak occurred in Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, and since then has spread to at least half of Iraq's 18 provinces. At least 30,000 Iraqis have displayed cholera-like symptoms and more than 2,500 cases have been confirmed in Kirkuk alone.

In the developing world, cholera is a rapid killer yet the threat of an outbreak is greatly increased in war zones as highlighted in a recent New York Times opinion piece. In dense areas like Baghdad and refugee camps, the Vibrio cholerae bacterium spreads quickly via untreated water or raw sewage and serves as a breading ground for the virus. Chlorine, which is often used to treat cholera-infected water, has become restricted in war zones as insurgents have used the chemical in bombing attacks. These restrictions have lead to reduced water treatment and possibly increased the prevalence of cholera.

To reduce the spread of cholera in Iraq, the Ministry of Health has begun a large cholera-awareness campaign outlining basic procedures for water decontamination by plastering cities with informative posters and having doses of vaccine on standby. However, to stop the flow of cholera, a clean-water program and better waste management is needed.

According to the author of the piece, while cholera poses a deadly threat to the American project in Iraqi and its citizens, it is also an opportunity for the United States to help shape post-surge operations to combat this disease. He states, "Our leaders must bear in mind that healthy people make healthy decisions that serve as the bedrock for healthy societies."

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Cholera Outbreaks in War Zones

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