Convergence of Humans, Bats, Trees, and Culture in Nipah Virus Transmission, Bangladesh.

Preventing emergence of new zoonotic viruses depends on understanding determinants for human risk. Nipah virus (NiV) is a lethal zoonotic pathogen that has spilled over from bats into human populations, with limited person-to-person transmission. We examined ecologic and human behavioral drivers of geographic variation for risk of NiV infection in Bangladesh. We visited 60 villages during 2011-2013 where cases of infection with NiV were identified and 147 control villages. We compared case villages with control villages for most likely drivers for risk of infection, including number of bats, persons, and date palm sap trees, and human date palm sap consumption behavior. Case villages were similar to control villages in many ways, including number of bats, persons, and date palm sap trees, but had a higher proportion of households in which someone drank sap. Reducing human consumption of sap could reduce virus transmission and risk for emergence of a more highly transmissible NiV strain

Hygiene intervention reduces contamination of weaning food in Bangladesh

Objective This study was conducted to measure the impact of a hygiene intervention on the contamination of weaning food in Bangladesh. Methods Sixty households were selected: 30 study and 30 control households. Samples of weaning food were collected from all the 60 households at baseline and examined for faecal coliforms (FC), faecal streptococci (FS) and Clostridium perfringens (CP) following standard procedures. After cooking, food samples were collected on three occasions before feeding. Following Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) procedures, critical control points were determined. The mothers in the 30 study households were then trained for 4weeks in how to attain the control point conditions. Then, again the food samples were collected and analysed. Results At baseline, weaning foods from study and control households were heavily contaminated with FC and FS. The FC and FS counts were 1.84log10 and 1.92log10 colony-forming unit (cfu)/g, respectively, in the study households, and 0.86log10 and 1.33log10cfu/g, respectively, in the control households in the first feeding. After the intervention, the FC and FS counts in study households had dropped to 0.10log10 and 0.09log10cfu/g, respectively, a statistically significant reduction (P<0.001). Monitoring the sustainability of the behaviour change after 3months showed that the mothers were maintaining food hygiene. Conclusions A hygiene intervention following the HACCP approach reduced the weaning food contamination significantly. Awareness building among mothers about weaning food hygiene could be an important intervention for preventing weaning foodrelated diarrhoea in Bangladesh