Formative research on hygiene behaviors and geophagy among infants and young children and implications of exposure to fecal bacteria.

Am J Trop Med Hyg

Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns, Baltimore, Maryland; Zvitambo Project, Harare, Zimbabwe; Centre for Pediatrics, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom; The Hygiene Centre, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.

Published: October 2013

We conducted direct observation of 23 caregiver-infant pairs for 130 hours and recorded wash-related behaviors to identify pathways of fecal-oral transmission of bacteria among infants. In addition to testing fingers, food, and drinking water of infants, three infants actively ingested 11.3 ± 9.2 (mean ± SD) handfuls of soil and two ingested chicken feces 2 ± 1.4 times in 6 hours. Hand washing with soap was not common and drinking water was contaminated with Escherichia coli in half (12 of 22) of the households. A one-year-old infant ingesting 1 gram of chicken feces in a day and 20 grams of soil from a laundry area of the kitchen yard would consume 4,700,000-23,000,000 and 440-4,240 E. coli, respectively, from these sources. Besides standard wash and nutrition interventions, infants in low-income communities should be protected from exploratory ingestion of chicken feces, soil, and geophagia for optimal child health and growth.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3795101PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.12-0568DOI Listing

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