EESS talk on "Environmental Transmission of Enteric Bacteria: Lessons from Bangladesh, Tanzania, Vietnam, U.S.A, and Zimbabwe"
Event details
| Date | 31.10.2017 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker |
Dr Tim Julian, Group leader, Pathogens and Human Health, Dpt Environmental Microbiology, EAWAG Short biography: Dr Tim Julian is the Group Leader of the Pathogens and Human Health research group within the Department of Environmental Microbiology at Eawag. The group works to increase the understanding of pathogen transmission at the boundary between humans and the environment. Prior to starting his group at Eawag in May 2014, Tim completed a postdoctoral fellow in Environmental Health Sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland USA, and received his Ph.D. from Civil and Environmental Engineering program at Stanford University in Stanford, California, USA . |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract:
Every year, more than half a million children die due to diarrheal diseases. Recent studies have identified the most important etiologies of diarrheal disease are enterotoxigenic and enteropathogenic E. coli, Shigella spp., rotavirus, norovirus and Cryptosporidium spp. These etiologies are characterized by a combination of high shedding, high infectivity, and transmissibility through multiple environmental reservoirs. It is therefore unsurprising that these microorganisms are regularly found throughout the household environment. Through a series of research studies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the United States, the dynamics of environmental enteric bacteria in the household environment are explored. Enteric bacteria are found to be ubiquitous, detected in drinking water and handwashing water, on hands, soils, and surfaces, at surprisingly high concentrations. Efforts to reduce microbial contamination are largely only temporary, with handwashing – for example – having only a short term impact on microbial contamination on hands in Tanzania. Modeling efforts from Tanzania and Vietnam to understand the transfer of enteric bacteria demonstrate the rapidity with which enteric bacteria move through the environment. Impacts of rare contacts with highly contaminated objects – such as soil flooring – drive exposures. Soil flooring, in Bangladesh, is shown to harbor virulent and antimicrobial resistant strains of E. coli. The soil may also be a source of pathogenic E. coli, as Bangladeshi soils are shown to readily support the growth of enteropathogenic E. coli. In Zimbabwe, efforts to identify risk factors for enteric bacterial contamination largely fail, suggesting the need for a systems approach to better understand and reduce environmental enteric bacteria transmission in low and middle income countries.
Every year, more than half a million children die due to diarrheal diseases. Recent studies have identified the most important etiologies of diarrheal disease are enterotoxigenic and enteropathogenic E. coli, Shigella spp., rotavirus, norovirus and Cryptosporidium spp. These etiologies are characterized by a combination of high shedding, high infectivity, and transmissibility through multiple environmental reservoirs. It is therefore unsurprising that these microorganisms are regularly found throughout the household environment. Through a series of research studies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the United States, the dynamics of environmental enteric bacteria in the household environment are explored. Enteric bacteria are found to be ubiquitous, detected in drinking water and handwashing water, on hands, soils, and surfaces, at surprisingly high concentrations. Efforts to reduce microbial contamination are largely only temporary, with handwashing – for example – having only a short term impact on microbial contamination on hands in Tanzania. Modeling efforts from Tanzania and Vietnam to understand the transfer of enteric bacteria demonstrate the rapidity with which enteric bacteria move through the environment. Impacts of rare contacts with highly contaminated objects – such as soil flooring – drive exposures. Soil flooring, in Bangladesh, is shown to harbor virulent and antimicrobial resistant strains of E. coli. The soil may also be a source of pathogenic E. coli, as Bangladeshi soils are shown to readily support the growth of enteropathogenic E. coli. In Zimbabwe, efforts to identify risk factors for enteric bacterial contamination largely fail, suggesting the need for a systems approach to better understand and reduce environmental enteric bacteria transmission in low and middle income countries.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Professor Tamar Kohn, LCE