Escherichia coli contamination of child complementary foods and association with domestic hygiene in rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Abstractobjective To determine the frequency and concentration of Escherichia coli in child complementary food and its association with domestic hygiene practices in rural Bangladesh.method A total of 608 households with children <2 years were enrolled. We collected stored complementary food samples, performed spot checks on domestic hygiene and measured ambient temperature in the food storage area. Food samples were analysed using the IDEXX most probable number (MPN) method with Colilert-18 media to enumerate E. coli. We calculated adjusted prevalence ratios (APR) to assess the relationship between E. coli and domestic hygiene practices using modified Poisson regression, adjusting for clustering and confounders.result Fifty-eight percentage of stored complementary food was contaminated with E. coli, and high levels of contamination (≥100 MPN/dry g food) were found in 12% of samples. High levels of food contamination were more prevalent in compounds where the food was stored uncovered (APR: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.2-3.2), transferred from the storage pot to the serving dish using hands (APR: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.3-3.2) or stored for >4 h (APR: 2.5, 95% CI: 1.5, 4.2), in compounds where water was unavailable in the food preparation area (APR: 2.6, 95% CI: 1.6, 4.2), where ≥1 fly was captured in the food preparation area (APR: 1.6, 95% CI: 1.0, 2.6), or where the ambient temperature was high (>25-40°C) in the food storage area (APR: 2.7, 95% CI: 1.5, 4.4).conclusion Interventions to keep stored food covered and ensure water availability in the food preparation area would be expected to reduce faecal contamination of complementary foods.

Animal Feces Contribute to Domestic Fecal Contamination: Evidence from E. coli Measured in Water, Hands, Food, Flies, and Soil in Bangladesh

“… 67 Multiplex PCR testing of a subset of E. coli -positive food and fly samples from our study found pathogenic E. coli genes in 14% of E. coli -positive food and 2% of E. coli -positive flies. 68 A previous study in rural Bangladesh found that among tubewells with 1–10 MPN/100 mL E. coli (similar to our tubewell E. coli levels), pathogenic E. coli was detected by qPCR in 21%, rotavirus in 57%, Shigella in 7% and Vibrio cholerae in 7% of wells. 69 Another study in a similar Bangladeshi setting found that, while 97% of soil samples were positive for E. coli , only 14% contained pathogenic E. coli detected by multiplex PCR.…”

Risk factors for child food contamination in low‐income neighbourhoods of Maputo, Mozambique: An exploratory, cross‐sectional study

“…Bangladesh (Parvez et al, 2017), but not other findings in Bangladesh (Henry et al, 1990) or Thailand (Imong et al, 1995). The corrective measures proposed correspond with previous HACCP analyses in LMICs used to develop food hygiene interventions (Gautam et al, 2017;M.…”

Health Outcomes of an Integrated Behaviour-Centred Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Food Safety Intervention–A Randomised before and after Trial

“…Minimal relative reductions in diarrhoeal disease between Treatments 1 and 2 infer a significant role played by food hygiene practices and associated hand washing with soap at critical times. The role of food in diarrhoeal disease transmission has been long recognised [37][38][39][40][41], and a recent WHO report attributed 70% of the burden of foodborne disease to low and middle income countries, with 40% of this burden affecting children under the age of five [2]. Our findings support the growing body of evidence that improving food hygiene practices can play a significant role in reducing diarrhoeal disease in under five populations.…”