Location
Room 2908
Session Format
Paper Presentation
Research Area Topic:
Public Health & Well Being - Epidemiologic Research
Abstract
In many low and lower-middle income countries, access to sanitation is limited for many individuals. Open defecation contaminates the environment and facilitates the transmission of diarrheal pathogens that are transmitted via the environment. The provision of sanitation facilities that are shared by many individuals, such as shared latrines in slums, are considered by many public health officials as the only short-term solution to this problem, especially in urban slums in Asia and Africa. However, epidemiological evidences have shown that shared sanitation may actually increase the prevalence of diarrheal diseases. One hypothesis that may explain this phenomenon is that many different pathogens may cause diarrhea. While sanitation facilities reduce the contamination of the environment by human defecation, unhygienic sanitation facilities are actually fomites for the transmission of other diarrheal pathogens that are transmitted directly between humans. We propose a mathematical model that seeks to explain how the alleviation of environmental transmission of pathogens such as cholera via shared sanitation can lead to an amplification of direct transmission caused by other diarrheal diseases such as norovirus.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Presentation Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Start Date
4-16-2016 1:30 PM
End Date
4-16-2016 2:30 PM
Recommended Citation
Just, Matthew R., "The Implications of Shared Sanitation Facilities on the Transmission of Diarrheal Pathogens Transmitted via Environmental and Person-to-Person Routes: A Modeling Study" (2016). GS4 Georgia Southern Student Scholars Symposium. 167.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/research_symposium/2016/2016/167
The Implications of Shared Sanitation Facilities on the Transmission of Diarrheal Pathogens Transmitted via Environmental and Person-to-Person Routes: A Modeling Study
Room 2908
In many low and lower-middle income countries, access to sanitation is limited for many individuals. Open defecation contaminates the environment and facilitates the transmission of diarrheal pathogens that are transmitted via the environment. The provision of sanitation facilities that are shared by many individuals, such as shared latrines in slums, are considered by many public health officials as the only short-term solution to this problem, especially in urban slums in Asia and Africa. However, epidemiological evidences have shown that shared sanitation may actually increase the prevalence of diarrheal diseases. One hypothesis that may explain this phenomenon is that many different pathogens may cause diarrhea. While sanitation facilities reduce the contamination of the environment by human defecation, unhygienic sanitation facilities are actually fomites for the transmission of other diarrheal pathogens that are transmitted directly between humans. We propose a mathematical model that seeks to explain how the alleviation of environmental transmission of pathogens such as cholera via shared sanitation can lead to an amplification of direct transmission caused by other diarrheal diseases such as norovirus.
