LifeStraw® water purifiers

Half of the world's poor suffer from waterborne disease, and nearly 6,000 people – mainly children – die each day from consuming unsafe drinking water. LifeStraw® water purifiers have been developed as a practical way of preventing disease and saving lives, as well as achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe water by the year 2015.

LifeStraw® Personal and LifeStraw® Family are complementary point-of-use water filters - truly unique offerings from Vestergaard Frandsen that will help people obtain safe drinking water at home and outside - paving the way for swiftly and effectively accomplishing the Millennium Development Goals

LifeStraw® Personal, a portable water filtration device, was launched in 2005. LifeStraw® Personal provides people with access to safe drinking water at home and outside, has no moving parts, and does not require electricity or spare parts, making it ideal for use in the developing world.

Continuing its commitment to fight waterborne disease, Vestergaard Frandsen launched the newest member of the LifeStraw® group of products, the LifeStraw® Family in 2008. LifeStraw® Family is an instant microbiological purifier that can provide at least 18,000 litres of water, enough to provide a typical family with clean and safe drinking water for at least three years. The product has been extensively tested in the United States at the University of North Carolina and the University of Arizona, and complies with United States Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for microbiological purifiers, removing at least 99.9999% of all bacteria, 99.99% of viruses, and 99.9% of parasites.

Recent studies have established that household interventions, like LifeStraw® Family, are twice as effective in preventing diarrhoea as common source-based interventions like new drinking wells, boreholes, and communal tap water stands. In 2006, The Cochrane Collaboration published a systematic review of 38 randomized, controlled trials of various water-quality interventions to prevent diarrhoea. Of these interventions, filtration provided by far the most reduction (63%), compared to other methods like chlorination (37%) and solar disinfection (31%).

“LifeStraw® Family will meet a critically important need in the developing world, where 1.8 million people, mostly children, die each year from waterborne diseases,” added Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO of Vestergaard Frandsen. “The need for safe and clean water is especially acute for people living with HIV and AIDS. Chronic diarrhoea is a leading cause of death for people with AIDS, and it affects up to 90% of HIV patients. Further, diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among HIV-infected children. Thankfully, products like LifeStraw® Family can make a huge difference. In a study among HIV-infected persons in Uganda, for example, the use of safe drinking water decreased diarrhoeal illness by 36%.”

Adapted with permission from the Vestergaard Frandsen website, February 2009.

For more information please visit www.vestergaard-frandsen.com.