Talk:Cloth filter

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[edit] Dracunculiasis

"The main use of the cloth is to prevent infection of the parasite - guinea worm dracunculiasis which would otherwise be transmitted when water is consumed along with its host the chloropid."

~ Is there a source for this? All the reading I did referred to cholera and Bangladesh. I'm interested to learn about the use of cloth filters in Africa (where the guinea worm is).

Of course, an effective filter will remove any pathogen, more or less effectively, so I don't doubt that it's effective for guinea worms. --Singkong2005 12:56, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Briefly, a cloth filter will not remove 'all' parasites, for example it's ineffective against schistosomiasis which is a water-washed disease.

I assume you mean that the cloth filter will not prevent contact with affected water? But I would presume that water treated in this way would be free of schistosome larvae. So it's not a complete solution, but might still be useful if, for example, someone wanted to wash their child in clean water. Or am I missing something? --Singkong2005 01:07, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

I mean that you said "the cloth filter will remove all pathogens" this is very wrong, it is actually ineffective against most pathogens. The reason I mention guinea worm is because apart from chemotheorpy the use of the cloth filter is the main way to prevent transmission of the disease. There aren't many diseases that can be wholey prevented from the use of a clothe and guinea worm is one.

You're missing lot yes, I said the cloth filter won't prevent transmission of schistosomiasis but the truth is the cloth filter on its own won't prevent transmission of any pathogens at all. Do you know why this is the case?Moniz 01:26, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't know why that is the case... Could you explain what your source is? E.g. personal knowledge, heard from doctors. I couldn't find more info online, so I'm very keen to learn more.

Did you look up the links I gave in the text body and at the end? They say that 99% of cholera is removed, using old cotton saris.

I originally wrote: most cholera bacteria and other pathogens are removed, which is supported by the sources I supplied. I assume schistosomes are much larger than bacteria, so removal should be almost 100%. If you disagree I am very curious to know why.

I hope you have better days soon --Singkong2005 13:09, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry if this sounds off but I'm not having the best of days.Moniz 01:51, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

In regards to proof that the clothe filter is effective against guinea worm, I will try and track down a source for you but I'm 100% sure that guinea worm is the only disease that can be prevented wholey from using a filter. Moniz 14:43, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

I reinserted the text about guinea worm - the article history shows that I removed it but I can't remember exactly why - I think the removal was too hasty anyway.

Regarding the use of ^{[citation needed]} - this doesn't mean I don't believe it, just that it is important to get a verifiable source for this. It seems that you have shared a little known (and valuable) piece of information. Hopefully you can find something, or someone sees this who can help. I am still very curious to know more about it. If you can only share personal observation, I'd still be interested to hear about it on this talk page.

The other material in the article is supported by the articles under External links, which appear to be reliable sources, so ^{[citation needed]} is not needed. --Singkong2005 04:02, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Hello Singkong. As per your requests I will try and add to the article during the summer months. The area is familar to me only because I was fortunate enough to do a course of 'waste water and sanitation for developing countries'. I think I'd have done better in the exam if I had contributed to wikipedia during the term. :-) JHJPDJKDKHI! 11:18, 14 May 2006 (UTC)