Sanitization News and Research

RSS

Cholera education campaign launched in Somali capital

Health ministry officials on Friday launched a cholera education campaign in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, "which aims to educate at least one person in every household on preventing the disease and what to do when symptoms occur," Agence France-Presse reports.

21 Dec 2011

Public-private partnerships exponentially expand effects of USAID aid to Jamaica

Public-private partnerships "will boost small enterprises, bring technology to schools and improve sanitation and clean water in Jamaica," a VOA News editorial states and highlights three such partnerships created by USAID.

21 Dec 2011

AlertNet examines effects of Nepalese water shortages on local women's hygiene

AlertNet examines how water shortages in Nepal are impeding women's hygiene in the country. The news service profiles the village of Paudiyalthok in the country's Panchkhal Valley, about 25 miles east of the capital Kathmandu, where "a lack of reliable water sources is affecting many aspects of [residents'] lives, and women are bearing the brunt of changing weather patterns."

16 Dec 2011

Congress should give clean water to world's poor through Water for the World Act

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) writes about access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation among the world's poor, stating, "As America prepares for the holiday season ... I hope that Congress will give a gift of life, health and hope by helping people around the world with something that most Americans take for granted: safe drinking water."

15 Dec 2011

Paper calls for strong steps to control global crisis of antibiotic-resistant infections

Shahriar Mobashery, a University of Notre Dame researcher, is one of the coauthors of a new paper by a group of the world's leading scientists in academia and industry that calls for strong steps to be taken to control the global crisis of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. The group issued a priority list of steps that need to be taken on a global scale to resolve the crisis.

9 Dec 2011

Working night shifts may raise risk of diabetes: Study

About 26% percent of the American workforce, including health-care workers and sanitation staff, need to work night shifts. Earlier research has shown that regular night shifts may disrupt the circadian rhythm, raising the risk of heart disease, obesity, ulcers and even depression.

8 Dec 2011

Olympus releases Acecide-C High-Level Disinfectant and Sterilant

Olympus, a precision technology leader in designing and delivering innovative solutions in Medical and Surgical Products, among other core businesses, announces the release of Acecide-C, a new, peracetic acid-based high-level disinfectant and sterilant.

From Evident Corporation - Life Sciences 8 Dec 2011

UNICEF report says more than 30M children in East Asia, Pacific lack essential services

"More than 30 million children in seven countries in East Asia and the Pacific are deprived of at least one essential service such as basic health care, safe drinking water or access to education, according to a United Nations study," AlertNet reports.

24 Nov 2011

Relief officials concerned over malnutrition among children in Ethiopian refugee camps despite food aid

Humanitarian aid officials are concerned about high levels of malnutrition among young children at the Dolo Ado refugee camps in southern Ethiopia "despite the free availability of Plumpy'nut, a peanut-based paste in a plastic wrapper for treatment of severe acute malnutrition," the Guardian reports.

24 Nov 2011

Balanced approach needed to fight cholera outbreaks in Haiti

Jason Nickerson, a respiratory therapist and doctoral candidate in Population Health at the University of Ottawa, in this Global Health Hub post, recounts recent controversy surrounding "the health and humanitarian response to the earthquake and cholera outbreaks" in Haiti, noting tension "between the provision of [a cholera] vaccine as opposed to spending the money on improvements to water and sanitation" in the country.

23 Nov 2011

U.N. makes statement, WaterAid releases report on sanitation to coincide with World Toilet Day

"The United Nations independent expert on access to water and sanitation as a human right on Saturday urged States to allocate more resources to improving sanitation and promote efficient use of existing hygiene facilities, stressing that people are entitled to decent toilets," the U.N. News Centre reports.

22 Nov 2011

U.N. appeals for $5.5M to fight cholera in DRC

The U.N. and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to fight an outbreak of cholera that has infected more than 17,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) need an additional $5.5 million to help their efforts.

21 Nov 2011

Innovations, new solutions needed to end 'global sanitation crisis'

In this CNN opinion piece, Jenna Davis -- a faculty member in Stanford University's Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, where her research and teaching focuses on water, sanitation and health, and a former member of the U.N. Millennium Task Force for Water and Sanitation -- reports on what she calls a "global sanitation crisis," writing, "More than 40 percent of the world's population does not have access to a toilet.

21 Nov 2011

Celebrate World Toilet Day and help flush out poverty

Americans take their bathrooms for granted, but for 2.6 billion people worldwide, a toilet is a luxury. To raise awareness of global sanitation needs, Nov. 19 has been designated World Toilet Day.

19 Nov 2011

Doctors, aid workers warn of disease threats to displaced persons in Somalia

Inter Press Service examines how doctors and aid workers in and around Mogadishu, Somalia, "are warning that famine victims in internally displaced camps have become vulnerable to contagious diseases like cholera and measles, as conditions here are ripe for an outbreak."

18 Nov 2011

CNN profiles Global Soap Project's work in sanitation

As part of its "CNN Heroes" series, CNN examines the Global Soap Project, started by Derreck Kayongo, a Ugandan war refugee and one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011. The organization works with more than 300 hotels in the U.S. to collect used bars of soap, clean them and reprocess them to be distributed in countries such as Haiti, Kenya, Swaziland and Uganda, CNN reports.

17 Nov 2011

Some public health experts raise concerns over plans to immunize Haitians against cholera, AP reports

The Associated Press/Washington Times reports on a pilot project plan by Partners In Health (PIH) and GHESKIO to vaccinate Haitians against cholera, which "has set off a debate among some public health experts who question the wisdom of the program that will inoculate only one percent of the population and could deplete the world's stock of available cholera vaccine, potentially putting people at risk in other vulnerable places."

16 Nov 2011