Purpose: As Vibrio cholerae is one of the major causes of death in the developing world, though it is very well understood, the authors undertook the work to see if a method already relatively common to the area could be effective in reducing cholera outbreaks. The authors objectives were to find a simple method that could be used without much training to reduce the incidence of cholera.
Hypothesis: The authors’ hypothesis was that if a commonly used and simple water filtration system was used to lower the amount of the waterborne copepods that are linked with Vibrio cholerae from surface water taken for daily use, the occurrence of cholera would decrease dramatically.
Background: The scientific community already knows much about the bacteria that causes cholera, V. cholerae, and methods to prevent outbreaks of cholera. Scientists also know that V. cholerae sticks to larger copepods’ eggs, oral region, and the copepod itself. These V. cholerae carrying copepods are often found in the drinking water of many communities, especially in Bangladesh, where the experiment took place. The authors also knew from a previous experiment, albeit on a much smaller scale, that they conducted that a cotton sari folded
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Caused by a bacteria called Vibrio cholerae the waterborne illness causes extreme diarrhea that leads to dehydration, and, if left untreated, death within a matter of hours. Even more cause for worry stems from the fact that, as cholera suffers shed so much diarrhea that it often ends up in the water supply and infects even more people, continuing the cycle. As a disease that affect children and the elderly most severely, its effects can devastate whole communities as it normally appears after some type of disaster. For example, after the 2010 earthquake destroyed most of Haiti, cholera also broke out, exacerbated by the infrastructure breakdown, low access to clean water, and inaccessibility of medical