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Disease record cell identified in new research

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Emory University researchers have discovered cells that contain records the body’s response to infections during early life in bone marrow. The cells, dubbed “historical record” cells by the researchers, are a rare type of highly diverse plasma cell.

Using proteomics and RNA sequencing techniques, the team proved that one of the subsets of the infection-recording cells under their lenses was exclusively responsible for producing the measles-and-mumps-specific antibodies in the blood of one of their study participants.

Like other plasma cells, these “historical record” cells undergo changes in their DNA, but the subset D cells are much more diverse than other plasma cells. The researchers think this is the case because their genes do not devote too much space to any single infection.

The cells are unusual among bone marrow cells. They have a rare “fried egg” appearance, containing bubble-like vacuoles or lipid droplets. They also have more condensed nuclei than other white blood cells.

The report, “Long-Lived Plasma Cells Are Contained within the CD19−CD38hiCD138+ Subset in Human Bone Marrow,” was completed by Drs. Iñaki Sanz, Eun-Hyung Lee, and a team of others.

By Sid Douglas

Beetroot Juice: Boosts Athletes 15-20%

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Beetroot Juice
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In what sport could you not use a 20 percent boost in performance? Scientists have found a food that does just that — the beet. And the why? It’s a root that naturally contains high levels on nitrates.

“This is one of the sports nutrition stories of the decade,” Dr. Andy Jones of England’s University of Exeter said of his teams work. “I think this is one of these discoveries, for want of a better word, that transcends — it’s not just performance, but it has a health application and implication as well.”

Part of the energy cost of athletic performance is in oxygen — the body burns through oxygen as it works. If performance consumes less oxygen, the body can work for longer before fatiguing. One way to do this is to increase blood flow to transport oxygen. Nitrates do just that: they increase blood flow plus dilate blood vessels, so the workload of the heart is reduced so it can better deliver oxygen to the muscles that burn it.

Other research has found that drinking a glass (about half a liter) of beetroot juice every day lowers blood pressure by about seven percent.

The team had study participants drink beetroot juice for two weeks. Then these participants hit the gym with their lowered blood pressure and dilated blood vessels to exercise, hooked up to performance-measuring equipment. When they did, their blood vessels dilated more easily and their hearts consumed less oxygen.

Beetroot Juice (1)

“We found a significant reduction in the oxygen cost of exercise, which implies that energy demand of exercising at a particular work rate is significantly lower.”

The benefits for athletes fully exerting themselves was even more profound.

“When we extended our studies to ask our subjects to exercise to exhaustion, we found that they were able to go significantly longer at the same high intensity work rate, so there seemed to be a performance benefit as well.

“The reduction in the oxygen cost of exercise during sub-maximal work was or the order of five to 10 percent, which is really quite meaningful, and then the improvement in the times to exhaustion — at a high intensity rate — were of the order of 15 to 20 percent.”

Beetroot Juice (2)

Beet root juice may also help to reduce blood pressure because of the same naturally high level of nitrates, the research has found.

Old age, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other metabolic diseases — these are some of the populations Jones would like to explore his findings in.

“We and others are at the beginning, really, of this story, so there are dialogues going on with NHS and with various charities, the elderly and others, who want to deal with medical conditions — to really try and use this in a more practical way.”

beetroot juice

Beetroot juice is not the only way to get nitrates, although it was the souce studied by the Exeter team. Celery, cabbage, spinach, and some lettuces and other green vegetables also contain high concentrations of nitrates.

By Cheryl Bretton

 

Cheap osteoporosis drug cuts breast cancer deaths by nearly 20%

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In what some have called one of the most important cancer research findings in the last decade, based on data from 19,000 women, researchers have discovered that a type of inexpensive drug which is currently unavailable for preventing secondary tumor growth in bone has been found to reduce breast cancer deaths by 18 percent.

The drugs, bisphosphonates, are commonly used to prevent osteoporosis bone loss, and the scientists behind the new study believe bisphosphonates starve cancer cells in the bone.

According to their research, women may benefit most from taking the drugs early in their treatment.

The research team looked at data from 26 separate trials of the drug, and found a 28% reduction in cancers for post-menopausal women, as well as an 18 percent reduction in death within 10 years of first diagnosis.

Breast cancer accounts for 25 percent of the cancers women develop. Worldwide, there are nearly 2 million new cases diagnosed yearly.

In the US, 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, it is predicted, and this year around 230,000 new cases are expected, while 42,000 women are expected to die this year from the disease.

Bone is a frequent second host to the breast. Even when a tumor is removed from the breast, tiny cancer fragments can remain and spread, usually settling in bone where it can lie dormant for years.

Although the drug costs less than 10 cents per day, the scientists expressed concern that this low drug value will keep pharmaceutical companies from producing it. The drug is not in patent. This has caused cancer research advocates to call for new guidelines on the production of bisphosphonates.

The report, “Adjuvant bisphosphonate treatment in early breast cancer: meta-analyses of individual patient data from randomised trials,” was completed by the staff of the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG)

By Cheryl Bretton

Marijuana is not a “gateway drug” for teens at all, says new study

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In a recently completed study, scientists at New York University Langone Medical Center’s department of population health have concluded that marijuana is not a gateway drug for teens.

Looking at high school seniors over the course of 11 years — seniors who had reported using marijuana in the past 12 months — the researchers found that although many teens did use other drugs, evidence showed that this was not due to using marijuana first.

“Most teens who use marijuana don’t progress to use of other drugs, and we believe this is evidenced in part by the fact that nearly two-thirds of these marijuana-using teens did not report use of any of the other illicit drugs we examined,” said lead author Joseph Palamar.

“The majority of adults in the U.S. have at least tried marijuana, and we know the majority has never gone on to use another drug, yet we tend to treat all drug use as pathological,” he added.

So what does cause teens to use drugs?

Two significant causes found by the study were boredom and a desire to expand consciousness.

Almost one-third of the teens in the study cited boredom as the reason they used drugs. This group was 43 percent more likely to use cocaine and 56 percent more likely to try a hallucinogen other than LSD.

Around one-fifth reported a desire to achieve insight or understanding. These teens were 51 percent more likely to try a hallucinogen other than LSD.

The drug-experimenter group actually had a decreased risk of using any of the other eight drugs asked about in the study.

But boredom and the quest for greater understanding don’t explain all drug users, the researchers stated, and Palamar stressed the importance of finding out the real reasons people use mind-altering substances.

Marcia Lee Taylor, president and CEO of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, agreed. “No matter what drug we’re talking about, motivations are really important,” she said. “We need to understand what is motivating a teen to use if we want to know how to prevent it.”

“Science has consistently shown that environmental factors, such as ready access to other illicit substances, and personal traits, such as a propensity toward risk-seeking behavior, are associated with the decision to move from marijuana to other illicit substances,” commented Paul Armentano, deputy director of the pro-marijuana group NORML. “But marijuana’s drug chemistry likely does not play a significant role, if any role, in this decision.”

By Sid Douglas

Doctors warnings for swimming pools this summer

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Doctors warnings for swimming pools this summer
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Do you know the reason swimmers get red, irritated eyes? It’s not the chlorine itself.

It’s due to the reaction of chlorine mixing with urine, according to Thomas Lachocki, PhD, CEO of the National Swimming Pool Foundation.

And according to Michele Hlavsa, RN, MPH, chief of the Center for Disease Control’s Healthy Swimming Program, the average person brings to the pool:

  • Billions of skin microbes
  • One or two soda cans’ worth of sweat
  • One cup of pee
  • 0.14 grams of poop

And kids can carry even greater amounts of germ-laden matter. They can bring up to 1 grams of feces into a pool.

“If 1,000 kids go to a waterpark, then 10,000 grams — or 22 pounds — of poop will potentially rinse off of their bodies into the water,” noted Hlavsa.

Chlorine, the disinfectant that is busy cleaning the pool of all this filth, is sore pressed to really deal with germs as well, such as E. coli, norovirus and legionella, which can lead to sickness if even small amounts are swallowed.

“People believe that the water is sterile because it’s a pool with chlorine in it, but the reality is as soon as you stick a human body in water, it’s no longer sterile. There are bacteria and germs that can get in the water,” said Lachocki.

The CDC recommends maintaining chlorine levels at around 1.0 and 3.0 parts per million, and testing pool’s chlorine levels regularly. They also recommend showering before swimming, avoiding getting water in your mouth, checking diapers every hour, and refraining from reliving yourself in the pool.

By Cheryl Bretton

Babies’ and children’s brain growth limited without fish oil fatty acids

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According to new research by UCI scientists, fetus’, babies’ and children’s brains need the types of fatty acids found in fish to develop. Dietary deficiencies in this area actually limits brain growth, Susana Cohen-Cory, professor of Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California-Irvine’s School of Biological Sciences and lead researcher on the study, found.

The study represents proof for the first time of how n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids cause changes in the molecules of a developing brain. Constraints caused by deficiency of these nutrients result in limited growth of neurons and connecting synapses because docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which is required neural and synaptic development, is based on fatty acids.

The team used African clawed frogs. The frogs were an excellent model, according to the researchers, because the embryos develop outside of the mother and are translucent, so the development of neurons and synapses can be observed in the intact, living embryos.

The team found that when they cut off the fatty acids to female frogs, the healthy growth of the central nervous system of their tadpole offspring was inhibited — poorly developed neurons and limited numbers of synapses resulted.

When the researchers returned the fatty acids to the next generation of mother frogs, neuronal and synaptic development returned to normal for the third generation.

The foods that have n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids include salmon, mackerel, trout, sardines, herring and other oily fish — which are the richest source of this nutrient. They can also be found in eggs and meat. Other foods, such as nuts, whole grains, dark green leafy vegetables and nuts also have the fatty acids, but much less. Oily fish contain 10 to 100 times more dietary DHA than the non-meat options.

Additionally, DHA is present in breast milk. It is also an ingredient in baby formulas and is a supplement for premature babies.

The study, “Impact of Maternal n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Deficiency on Dendritic Arbor Morphology and Connectivity of Developing Xenopus laevis Central NeuronsIn Vivo,” was completed by Miki Igarashi, Rommel A. Santos, and Susana Cohen-Cory

By Cheryl Bretton

HIV outbreak in Indiana reaches 130

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The outbreak of HIV in southern Indiana’s Scott County has affected 130 people, according to the region’s health officials, bringing the number up by 24 since last week. One hundred twenty cases are now confirmed in addition to 10 preliminary positives.

“We have seen a significant increase in the number of HIV cases reported this week, but we believe that is because we have been able to offer more testing with the help of additional staff from the CDC,” State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams said.

“This sharp increase in the number of HIV-positive cases demonstrates just how critical it is that we are able to locate and test people who have been exposed so that they can avoid spreading it to others and get medical treatment.”

Health authorities have identified the cause of the outbreak in drug users sharing needles.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working in the region at the reuest of the Indiana State Department to help local authorities investigate the outbreak. The CDC is providing help testing and contacting people who potentially have been exposed to the disease.

The Scott County Health Department this week began a mobile needle exchange. The new service, as well as the “One-Stop Shop” created by executive order last month, will compliment the Scott County’s needle exchange program.

By Cheryl Bretton

Health messages decoded differently by experts and the general public, study finds

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Health messages decoded differently by experts and the general public, study finds
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A recent study has found that health messages–the kind that are posted on billboards to advise the public or decorate the walls of doctors’ offices–have different effects on two different classes of people. The research found that while experts respond better to negative, loss-framed messages that make sense within the context their strong knowledge of the subject, most people do not. The general public responds better to positive, gain-framed messages that make sense within a big picture-type understanding of health.

It is the difference between “preaching to the choir” and reaching “people who really need to hear it, but who really don’t care that much to think very deeply about it,” Dr. Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and lead author of the study, said of his findings.

Wansick explained this by referencing the different understandings of health possessed by experts and the general public.

Experts–dieters, dieticians, and people who work in medicine or the medical area–have a strong knowledge-base with which they can process a health message. These people are highly involved in the topic, Wansick explained, and they “piecmeal process” health information (process things in detail. They also feel a duty to maintain the achievements they have already made in health matters, and tend to be risk-averse.

The general public, Wansick said, have less firsthand knowledge of the consequences of their actions, and view healthy behaviors are a choice rather than a duty. They tend to focus on what is gained by a certain behavior rather than what is lost.

Because experts write health messages, the study should give them something new to consider, the researchers expect. Because message designers can now be aware that what makes sense to themselves and their peers will likely have a different effect on the general public, they may be able to correct for their negative-message bias and create more useful positive messages.

The report, “Negative Messages for Experts, Positive Messages for Novices,” was completed by Brian Wansick and Lizzy Pope, and was published by Cornell Food & Brand Lab in Nutrition Reviews.

By Cheryl Bretton

Photo: the work of the researchers

The rise and rise of the Superbug?

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The rise and rise of the Superbug
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A recent report by economist Jim O’Neill is shining the light onto the economic implications of the global rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR occurs when bacteria that are exposed to different types of antibiotics become resistant to them, or multidrug resistant. In layman’s terms they turn into superbugs.

O’Neill’s report looks at the effect of AMR on labour force morbidity and mortality, and its effect on global economic output. It estimates that if resistance is left unchecked, global AMR deaths will rise from a current 700,000 deaths per year (of which some 50,000 deaths per year occur in the UK and the US alone) to ten million deaths per year by 2050, with global GDP likely to shrink by 2-3.5 per cent, equivalent to some $100 trillion losses between 2014 and 2050.

Poor availability of data around bacterial infections however means that the findings give only a broad brush picture of the global impact of AMR, and a rather conservative one at that.  Instead of all seven pathogens identified from the World Health Organisation for which drug resistance is a problem, the authors were only able to look at three: Klebsiella pneumonia, which is linked to pneumonia and respiratory tract diseases; E-coli, linked to gastrointestinal infections; and Staphylococcus aureus, which can be linked to a number of diseases, including pneumonia.

So what are the causes of AMR? AMR develops because bacteria adapt in order to survive: as they are exposed to antibiotics, they begin to develop a resistance to them and to share their resistance genes with one another.
While the discovery of penicillin in the late 1920s, and its later developments, revolutionised western medicine and public health care, reducing disease and infections’ incidence within humans and animals, and increasing our longevity, the flip side of the coin was that as bacteria got increasingly exposed to antibiotics – which suddenly made previously high-risk high-mortality surgical procedures safe – they also started to develop their own coping strategy against them.

Then in 1950 researchers in the US discovered that antibiotics could also be added to animal feed to increase livestock growth rates. This was a turning point for industrial farmers and meat producers, not to mention the pharmaceutical industry, with antibiotics consumption becoming even more mainstream. Such trend has continued to our days.

According to a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists, in 2001 more antibiotics were used in the US on healthy animals than on sick people. That is, roughly 70 per cent of total US antimicrobials use was for nontherapeutic purposes in livestock. It is not just the overuse of antibiotics in animal husbandry which is bad, but also the fact that antibiotics of importance to humans are often administered.

In the US regulation has yet failed to ban use of antibiotic substances that are important for human medicine, such as penicillin, and indeed some 13.5m pounds of substances prohibited in the EU are used each year for nontherapeutic purposes in livestock in the US.

At the same time in Europe the use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine does vary greatly between member states. At 370 and 211 milligrams of antibiotic-agents-per-kilogram-of ‘biomass treated’ respectively, Italy and Germany are two of the countries with the highest use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine in the EU. They both lag quite a bit behind Denmark, which only administers on average 43 milligrams/kg.

Indeed in Denmark, since 2000 it is prohibited to administer antibiotics as growth enhancers to healthy animals. And the veterinary use of antibiotics that are used in human medicine is also banned. Strict monitoring requires that Danish farmers report every time they administer antibiotics, by logging their use onto a centrally held database which checks how much of their allowance they have administered. If they go over it, they get fined. Such measures have seen the decline in use of antimicrobial agents in Denmark to 60 per cent of what it was in the 1990s.

That the problem of AMR stems from an overuse of antibiotics in farming is well documented. And with antibiotic resistance within bacteria in animals having spread onto human pathogens, we could soon face serious threats to our ability to conduct many routine surgical procedures, such as hip replacements and caesarean sections, as well as in our fight against major diseases, such as malaria, TB, HIV, pneumonia and cancer. As fewer and fewer options become available for treating infections, stories like this one will become more common.

Added to the issue of antibiotics in farming is that of an over-sanitised private sphere in which we are surrounded by antibacterial agents in soaps, mouthwash and cleaning products, promising to kill all unwanted germs (with quite a lot of the wanted ones as collateral), so that we could even eat off a kitchen floor if we felt the urge.

Not only are claims made about such products often misleading and highly contested, but evidence shows that indiscriminate use of antibacterials at home – such as those containing Triclosan, an antibacterial agent used in many cleaning products can be dangerous to our health, and as they find their way through our drains and into our water systems, they can also pollute our environment. And controversial research indicates that such antibacterial containing products can compound AMR.

So what can be done to reduce AMR? Reducing non therapeutic use of antibiotics in farming, as well as an outright ban on those which are used in human medicine would be a good step to take. Avoiding unnecessary exposure to antibacterial agents at home would not only help towards fighting AMR but also help reduce their negative effects on human health and the environment. Ultimately, the availability of new types of antibiotics would make it hard on bacteria to build up resistance, indeed an important reason why AMR is a problem is that new types of antibiotics have been hard to come by over the last few decades.

Yet on a very positive note, just today researchers from Northeastern University in Boston, US have revealed the discovery of a new antibiotic called teixobactin. Their research shows that none of the bacteria they exposed to teixobactin developed resistance. While the drug could still be some years from being available, and further research beckons, scientists agree that it does seem like a very hopeful step in the right direction.

Analysis by Annalisa Dorigo

Doctors found to make more money by ordering more procedures per patient, not by treating more patients

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Doctors now make more money by ordering more procedures per patient, not by treating more patients - first
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For the first time, doctors have been found to be making more money by ordering more procedures rather than for providing service to more patients. The results of recent UCLA research, which surprised the team behind the study, have led them to suspect that the pay-for-service system may encourage behavior that is not in the best interest of patients.

“The difference in earnings was highly significant,” Jonathan Bergman, an assistant professor of urology and family medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a urologist and bioethicist at the Greater Los Angeles Veterans’ Health Administration, told The Speaker. “This resulted from higher services offered per beneficiary.”

The findings, the researchers reported, were “very surprising.” It was the first time that higher-earning clinicians had made more money because they had ordered more services and procedures rather than because they had seen more patients.

The team examined Medicare bills from the 2012 calendar year and compared this information with amounts paid to clinicians.

“What people can learn is that fee-for-service may not be the most reasonable way to pay doctors. Also, that charges outpace payments by three is like listing $3 as the supposed price of a $1 Coke,” Bergman told us.

Bergman also commented for a press release on some of the possible flaws in Medicare policy.

“Medicare spending is the biggest factor crowding out investment in all other social priorities,” said Bergman.

“Perhaps it would make more sense to reimburse clinicians for providing high quality care, or for treating more patients. There probably shouldn’t be such wide variation in services for patients being treated for the same conditions.

“[The] findings suggest that the current health care reimbursement model–fee-for-service–may not be creating the correct incentives for clinicians to keep their patients healthy. Fee-for-service may not be the most reasonable way to reimburse physicians.”

In order to more conclusively answer whether the fee-for-service system was flawed, Bergman said, more research was needed–particularly an assessment of whether treatment outcomes for patients differed for those who had more or less services ordered. This research could also show how best to use resources to maximize medical benefits for people, he added.

“The most important takeaway is that it is hard to evaluate appropriate compensation for doctors, much like it is for teachers,” Bergman told us. “The answer isn’t to rely solely on services done, which is as problematic as using test scores to identify the best teachers.”

The letter on the research was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

By Cheryl Bretton

NGO using peer educator program to combat diabetes in Cambodia

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Peer educator program used to combat diabetes in Cambodia
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MoPoTyse, an NGO based in Phnom Penh, is using a peer education model that is cheaper and more effective than utilizing conventional doctors and clinics. This method is proving to reach many more diabetics and those prone to it, initially in poor areas in the capital and eventually in the outlying rural provinces. Upwards of 10 percent of Khmer currently have the disease.

The director of MoPoTyso, Maurits van Pelt, has stated that there are some significant reasons as to why the disease has become a growing problem in the country. One of these is a degree of poverty that prohibits most Cambodians from seeking proper medical assistance. “Adequate care is unavailable or prohibitively expensive as most patients live below USD 2 a day. Premium levels for community based health insurance do not allow coverage of chronic patient routine health care costs.” In fact, average global costs for insulin is $4, while in Cambodia it’s $16.

Another reason cited by van Pelt was the misconception that healthier brown rice is not as good as the cheaper white variety, which raises the Peer educator program used to combat diabetes in Cambodia (1)blood sugar level much more quickly. This notion came about during the Pol Pot regime, when people didn’t have the time to remove the husk of the rice. As van Pelt stated, “It’s associated with poverty. It has a bad reputation as something inferior.”

Since 2005, van Pelt’s peer educator system, which started in a slum in Phnom Penh, has used existing diabetics to act as mentors and guides to others that have the disease in their local area. “[These educators] were able to find other diabetes patients in the slums using a combination of urine glucose strips for postprandial screening and a handheld blood-glucose meter for confirmation blood glucose testing,” said van Pelt. These groups then hold weekly meetings at the home of the peer educator. There, they learn how to eat healthier foods, the importance of exercise, and take their own blood sugar.

Linda Meach, a peer educator, said that the majority of the diabetic newcomers to her meetings have very little knowledge of how to handle their disease. “Before they come to us, they do not know how to take care of their health,” said Meach, speaking of the program. “We teach them how to manage their food and exercise and how to use the medication.”

A motivating factor for the participants at these meetings to do well is financially based. Those whose blood sugar has decreased, have lost weight, and have an improved understanding of diabetes receive access to discounted medication from the local pharmacies. One of the attendee’s of Ms.Linda’s meetings, Rose Nith, is hopeful for the future of the program. “Without this center our community will be in difficulty, since we rely on this center and it supports us,” said Nith. “Some people will die since they cannot afford to buy medicine without it.”

By Brett Scott

Water in Cambodia getting cleaned up thanks to biosand filters

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Hundreds of paddle-powered boats raced at the Bon Om Touk water festival this month on the Siem Reap River, an occasion in which Cambodians celebrate the Mekong River’s biannual water flow reversal and the beginning of the fishing season. While the river itself wasn’t the main object of attention during the festivities Water in Cambodia getting cleaned up thanks to biosand filtersin the Southeastern Asia country, it did serve to highlight the dire need of the country to clean up it’s drinking water after decades of inner turmoil.

There are several reasons for the lack of clean drinking water in the country, according to Nthabeleng Emmel, Programs Manager for Water for Cambodia in Siem Reap, who said that lack of access is a major inhibitor. “Most people in Cambodia have no access to safe drinking water; they use contaminated water sources such as rivers, ponds, [and] wells.” This can lead to many different kinds of complications, such as gastrointestinal diseases like diarrhea, Emmel explained. Also, many of the population, especially in the countryside, use large open jars called cisterns to collect lake, stream and rain water. If not properly treated, this water can contain mosquito larvae, leading potentially to malaria and dengue fever.

Another reason many Cambodians don’t have easy access to clean drinking water is poverty. With the average Cambodian’s annual salary just under three dollars a day, many choose to purchase food as opposed to bottled water, which on average costs about sixty cents for a liter and a half.

While wells can be dug and used to get water, the quality may not be so good, said Mrs. Emmel. “Deep wells are usually said to be clean and some organizations dedicate their time drilling wells for rural communities but the utilization of [these] wells is questionable. Some areas have high content of iron in the water which usually comes with color, smell and [a bad] taste.”

Emmel’s organization builds and installs Biosand Filters for rural populations–the ones which experience the greatest difficulty in obtaining clean drinking water. The Water in Cambodia getting cleaned up thanks to biosand filtersfilter uses sand and gravel to remove up to 99 percent of the bacteria and protozoa in the water which is poured into it. “Water for Cambodia has adopted a Biosand filter which provides safe drinking water to the rural population,” said Emmel. “By the end of 2014 we will have installed over 14,000 filters reaching out to at least 84,000 individuals.”

Once the filters have been installed, the organization soon returns to test the filtered water in their lab. “We follow up with water testing which we do in our own lab, do quality control by checking all installed filters for any maintenance that may be needed and any other support the families may need,” said Emmel. A part of this support is educating the receivers of the filter on its use. “The challenge which we hope to overcome is getting people to understand the importance of pouring water into this filter on a daily basis and doing proper maintenance which only requires a few minutes.”

Mrs. Emmel is hopeful that the Biosand filter will continue to give rural Cambodians clean drinking water well into the future. “Biosand filters are the best solution for Cambodia as they are easy to use, maintain and they have a long life span [at least 15 years]. Their maintenance is inexpensive as the contents of the filter do not need to be changed but rather cleaned [on a regular basis]”.

By Brett Scott

Photo: Jonna Davis