Reducing diarrhoea through the use of household-based water filters: a randomised controlled trial in rural Bolivia.

This paper describes a 6-month study in Bolivia involving 50 rural village households. The 25 intervention households used a gravity water filter system consisting of two porous ceramic filter elements suspended within a 15-litre container, mounted over a second 15-litre receiving/storage vessel with a spigot. Of the 96 water samples from the filter households, 100% were free of coliforms, compared with 15.5% of the control samples. Diarrhoeal disease risk for individuals in the intervention households was 70% lower than for controls. For children <5 y the risk reduction was 83%. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 2004;70:651-7.