Hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are dying and thousands more are suffering unnecessarily from the debilitating disease cholera. Although easily preventable, through water sanitation and disinfection, cholera still wreaks havoc in much of the developing world, and the DRC is no exception. In recent travels to the Central African nation, Greg Allgood, Director of the Children’s Safe Drinking Water at Procter & Gamble (P&G), discovered that in Lubumbashi alone, the DRC’s second largest city, official reports for 2007 reveal that cholera claimed the lives of over 200 people and caused excruciating attacks of diarrhea and severe dehydration for more than 9,000 individuals.
A mission to discover the root of the outbreak lead him to a local village 40 kilometers from the city. There he found two wells, one broken and the other abandoned, and a stream that serves as the main water source for the community — contaminated with cholera. Along his journey he visited the newly developed cholera treatment center regulated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The MSF center aids the epidemic by disinfecting thousands of liters of water with chlorine and reviving infected cholera patients with oral rehydration salts (ORS) and intravenous (IV) fluid. The combination of the ORS and IV treatments rejuvenates the body from the vast loss of fluids caused by volatile bouts of diarrhea.
However, the situation need not be so grim. To safeguard against water contamination right at the household level, P&G, together with the U .S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, developed PUR Purifier of Water, a powdered household water disinfectant that comes in small, affordable, and easy-to-use sachets. With a proven formula for removing dirt and 99.9% of bacteria, viruses and parasitic cysts from water, PUR will undoubtedly reduce the rates of morbidity and mortality caused by water-borne diseases like cholera in the developing world. For as little as ten cents, one sachet of PUR treats the daily drinking water supply for a family of five, and reduces the incidence of diarrhea in young children by around 50%.
To raise awareness in the DRC of the preventative power of PUR, Greg disseminated several packets of PUR to patients at the MSF center and instructed nurses on how to properly use the product. Ultimately, through education and proper implementation, the goal is for the word about PUR and its daily use to spread just as quickly as Cholera.
