yazadjal.com

Decided to take one more step into tech savvydom. I know it’s rather banal, but I got myself onto the RSS feed bandwagon right now via a utility called AmphetaDesk. I’ve been looking, but can’t seem to find the links for feeds from mainstream media — TOI / BBC / CNN / Economist. Maybe I’m looking at the wrong places? I have found something called the World Press Review and spotted a pretty interesting piece.

How the Sari Guards Against Cholera
Cholera is endemic in the Brahmaputra basin, especially during and just after the monsoon. The pathogen, vibrio cholerae can survive outside the human intestinal tract for only a few hours. But it hosts itself onto the internal organs of zooplankton which infest the waters. Thus it survives and is possibly the major water borne killer in Bangladesh. One way of countering it is through advanced filtration techniques — too expensive for poor Bangladeshis. There is a cheaper (and perhaps better) alternative.

Used sari cloth. If this fabric is folded over eight times, it creates a filter with gaps just 20 microns in diameter—fine enough to trap even tiny bits of plankton. And old sari cloth is even better than new, because long use—and especially repeated washing—causes the fibers to fray and become better traps for microorganisms. A study done last year in 2,212 households in rural Bangladesh revealed how effective this simple filter technology is. The frequency of cholera infection in families who regularly filtered their water with old sari cloth was reduced from an average of four cases per 1,000 people to 0.64 cases.

There’s been quite a lot of talk about UV filters and boiling water at home. Looks like mom’s old saris might be enough!

PS: I love eclectic titles.