ArticleWater2019
Are Presence/Absence Microbial Tests Appropriate for Monitoring Large Urban Water Supplies in Sub-Saharan Africa?
Article in Water, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Comparing the Power of Low vs High-Precision Methods for MeasuringACS ES&T water · 2025Article
- Centralized or Onsite Testing? Examining the Costs of Water Quality Monitoring in Rural Africa.Environmental science & technology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Screening for fecal contamination via microbial water quality monitoring is a critical component of safe drinking water provision and public health protection. Achieving adequate levels of microbial water quality testing, however, is a challenge in resource-limited settings. One strategy for addressing this challenge is to improve the efficiency of monitoring programs. In African countries, quantitative microbial testing methods are commonly used to monitor chlorinated piped water systems. However, presence/absence (P/A) tests may provide an appropriate alternative for water supplies that generally show negative fecal contamination results. This study compares 1048 water quality test results for samples collected from five African urban water systems. The operators of the systems conducted parallel tests on the 1048 samples using their standard quantitative methods (e.g., most probable number or membrane filtration) and the Colitag™ method in P/A format. Combined data demonstrates agreement rates of 97.9% (1024/1046) for detecting total coliforms and 97.8% (1025/1048) for detecting
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.