Foodborne Bacterial Testing and Disinfection Education for Women in Egyptian Communities

In developing countries, foodborne bacteria is a significant cause of illness and death especially for those with compromised or undeveloped immune systems, such as pregnant women and infants. Foodborne pathogenic bacteria such as Listeria, Campylobacter and Salmonella often cause birth defects, miscarriage and diarrhea, but do not have simple identification tests. Diarrhea is a common illness associated with contaminated food, unsafe water, and bad sanitation, causing 1 in 9 child deaths worldwide (10-15% in sub-Saharan Africa and 5-10% in Egypt). Treatments of oral rehydration therapy and antibiotics are in short supply, and the overuse of antibiotics is causing an emergence of resistant bacteria. These are preventable diseases - there is an urgent need to enable and educate mothers and caregivers in poor communities with low cost, easy home tests for bacteria in food, and better education about food sanitation methods. We are aiming to start with communities in squatter settlements around Alexandria, Egypt, and our proposal includes the following 4 aims: 1) Develop a low cost, fast, easy home test for bacteria detection in food/water 2) Test local and commonly available disinfectant products and methods for cleaning food preparation surfaces in very poor Egyptian communities. 3) Community outreach to teach food testing and surface cleaning awareness: teaching and social media. 4) Establish an online tracking/surveillance database system for reporting diarrhea cases