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Our title represents the Clog’s interpretation, more or less, of the message being sent by the $10.9 million grant to research the effects of sanitation on diarrheal disease. No, not the kind potentially lurking in your keyboard (although we find that just as alarming in its own special little way).
Rather, the 5-year grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is intended toward the evaluation of methods currently used to improve health—especially that of children—in developing countries. The World Health Organization estimates that “2.2 million children under the age of 5 die from diarrheal diseases each year”—a phenomenon rooted in pervasive issues such as poor water quality, hygiene and sanitation.
Unfortunately, there’s more to addressing the problem than distributing bottles of Purell. The task that has fallen to Dr. Jack Colford of UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health (in collaboration with a couple other NGOs) is that of determining, in a nutshell, which existing interventions are most effective.
Focusing specifically on Bangladesh and Kenya, the study will target an anticipated 23,000 children in trials investigating “how sanitation interventions, delivered alone or as part of combined intervention packages, impact child health and well-being,” the results of which may determine the future allocation of funds in health and economic sectors worldwide.
Obviously, we expect to see some of those moneys trickle down into a campaign to de-poop computer labs.
Image Source: hll!H under Creative Commons
Gates Foundation awards $10.9 million to study impacts of sanitation on diseases [News Center]
Tags:Bill Gates, diarrheal disease, water quality, World Health Organization
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