As you grab a bottle from the 24-pack of Poland Spring in your dorm room and head out for the day, you probably don’t stop to think about the 894 million people in the world who do not have access to what the United Nations defines as an adequate amount of safe freshwater.

Asst. Emergency Medicine Prof. Amita Sudhir recalled during her younger days growing up in India, “Water was available to be used in two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. Typically five to ten pots per day were rationed off as drinking, while for the rest, ground water would have to suffice.”

Access to safe freshwater has a wide range of health effects. For most people living in the developed world, diarrhea is just an embarrassing annoyance or a punch line of a joke among friends. For many in the developing world it is life-threatening, however, especially for children under the age of 5.

Christa Fischer Walker, associate scientist at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, led a team of researchers in compiling a list of 10 ways to prevent diarrhea to reduce the number of associated deaths. These preventative measures include proper hand-washing with soap, improved sanitation, cleaner drinking water and better water treatment in the home. Walker is attempting to to prevent outbreaks of diarrhea by implementing these low-cost and effective practices rather than creating expensive, novel approaches.

The treatment of diarrheal diseases in sub-Saharan Africa consumes 12 percent of the region’s health budget, according to the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. During a typical day, patients who suffer from these diseases occupy more than half of the available hospital beds. As a result, the limited number of overworked physicians and health care practitioners devote the majority of their time to these easily preventable diseases rather than fighting against other serious illnesses such as cholera.

According to UNICEF, about 2.2 million children die every year because of acute diarrhea. “Diarrheal diseases affect children who do not have good nutrition to begin with and thus are less resistant to the effects of a single case of diarrhea,” Sudhir said. She also emphasized the importance of proper sanitation. “Trachoma is an eye disease which causes blindness and can be prevented if clean water is available to wash the hands and face,” she added.

In light of World Water Week, which lasted March 20 to the 26, contracted independent organizations have helped bring to light the importance of clean, fresh water through events such as UNICEF’s TAP Project — in which donating at least $1 for tap water in selected restaurants provides safe drinking water for a child for 40 days — and UVa Sustainability’s World Water Day Celebration.

Apart from the collective efforts of student-run organizations, University students also have been actively involved in promoting awareness and educating about water resources, sanitation, health and water usage.

First-year Engineering student Pranav Aurora volunteered with the non-governmental organization Community Water Solutions for nearly a month this past January to bring clean and affordable drinking water to villages in northern Ghana.

“We taught the villages the importance of clean drinking water and promised them a water treatment center, using a community-based approach,” Aurora said. Volunteers also built a water treatment center and taught villagers how to treat and safely store their safe freshwater. Unlike other organizations, Aurora said, in the final week of the fellowship, “We handed over the reins, letting the villagers take control of the project while we monitored to make sure there would be continuity even after we left.”

The effort to sustain the supply of safe water extends beyond that month. A “monitoring stage” is implemented, including weekly visits to these villages to make sure clean drinking water is continually provided. To date, Community Water Solutions has reached more than 10,000 people and will continue to expand to 10 more villages.

Efforts to promote water conservation and sustainability also are taking place here at the University. “By 2005, our water usage had dropped to just over 421.5 million gallons, down by over 37 percent from the 672 million gallons peak in 1999,” said Cheryl Gomez, director of energy and utilities for the University.

This drop was an impressive feat, especially since the University population had risen by nine percent and the serviced area had grown by 12 percent. After 2005, however, there has been an increase in water usage each year. Gomez attributed this rise to the recent construction of energy and water-intensive facilities for medicine, research and student housing, as well as the general growth of the University population.

Gomez said she and her colleagues have accomplished a long list of initiatives for water conservation, however. One of these goals was to eliminate air conditioning units which use domestic water for cooling, replacing them with chilled water. “With domestic water, the water ran past the coils and down the drain in a single pass,” Gomez said. She added that with chilled water cooling, however, the water is re-circulated in a closed loop system so it doesn’t go down the drain.

Access to water is a key issue both domestically and abroad. Now next time you enjoy a nice warm shower or take a drink from the faithful water fountain at the Aquatic & Fitness Center, be thankful for the five-letter word that is easily taken advantage of and think about what you can do to help.

It’s a late Thursday night. You’re dominating a beer pong tournament on the back porch. It’s down to the final cup. The other team sinks the last shot, and you’re left swallowing the sour taste of defeat as well as that last cup of even more putrid Natty Lite.

“Wait guys! Wait,” you exclaim. “I’ve got to test it for biological and radiological contaminants. You never know what could be in there. I might catch something. That’s why I’ve been taking antibiotics in preparation for tonight’s party.”

Absurd, right? Why would one take a pill and risk the side effects if there is no credible reason to do so? Well, explain that to the hoards of shoppers across America who have raided our country’s supply of potassium iodide in response to the nuclear incident taking place on the other side of the planet. People may have some misconceptions, so let’s review the relationship between iodine and health in the context of radioactivity.

To begin, there is no credible threat of radiation from Japan spreading to the United States in any quantity significant enough to cause generalized radiation danger in the form of acute radiation sickness, which can be lethal. In fact, experts such as David Brenner, the director of Columbia University’s Center for Radiological Research, believe that risk is very low for Japanese citizens, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Even if one lives next door to the leaking nuclear reactor, taking potassium iodide would not mitigate the risks of acute radiation sickness from exposure to high doses of radiation.

Potassium iodide only impacts the potential health of the thyroid gland in the neck by reducing the impact of environmental leaked radioactive iodine gas. If that gas settles in the water or gets into the food supply, then people possibly could ingest certain quantities of radioactive iodine. This doesn’t impact much of the body when diluted in the blood, but the thyroid gland in your neck concentrates iodine to make thyroid hormones. Concentrated radioactive iodine could damage surrounding thyroid tissue or possibly cause thyroid cancer if one ingests large quantities of radioactive iodine. The idea behind taking potassium iodide is to make sure the thyroid takes up non-radioactive iodine from the pills instead of too much of the radioactive iodine from the contaminated environment.

For the Japanese nuclear reactor to pose any risk whatsoever to our thyroids here in Charlottesville, a significant amount of radioactive iodine gas has to make its way undiluted across the entire Pacific Ocean, over the continental U.S., and drop out of the sky right on Central Grounds. For that reason, Greg Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has stated, “We see a very low likelihood — really, a very low probability — that there’s any possibility of harmful radiation levels in the United States or in Hawaii or any other U.S. territories.” If Hawaii, already halfway to Japan, is doing fine, I think I’ll pass on the potassium iodide and pick up some toothpaste at CVS instead.

Just like taking unneeded antibiotics, taking too much iodine can be hazardous to one’s health. Too much potassium iodide can cause skin reactions, gastro-intestinal problems, pregnancy complications and adverse reactions with commonly prescribed blood pressure medications. Potassium iodide is not something that should be taken impulsively without consulting one’s physician about current medications and other health risks. Like many products at health food stores and vitamin shops, potassium iodide has a serious impact on the body, though it does not require a doctor’s prescription.

Actually, I’d argue you’ve got a far better chance of ingesting some bacteria from the ping-pong ball that’s been rolling around the dirty porch and dunking in your brew than you do getting cancer from a nuclear incident on the other side of the planet. So break out the microbiology lab Thursday night. It makes more sense than partaking in the mass hysteria which has emptied our country’s shelves of potassium iodide.

Tom Mendel is a University Medical student. He can be reached at t.mendel@cavalierdaily.com

What: A robot named Simon solicits attention from people by waving or with other gestures and can tell when people nearby are ignoring it. In a controlled study, Simon was able to determine whether or not it successfully had captured someone’s attention about 80 percent of the time.

Who: Georgia Tech’s Socially Intelligent Machines lab worked to enable robots to interpret human behavior in the context of social interaction using only a camera which detected visual cues.

The Future: Research will continue, working to further develop robots’ ability to behave appropriately in social situations.

—compiled by Haley Mckey

A Swedish company has created a mass market eye tracking device which will allow users to use their eyes to do many of the things they currently do on a computer using a mouse.

The Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne is developing autonomous flying robots to establish emergency wireless communication networks more quickly in times of disaster, resulting in more efficient relief.

A malfunctioning drill pipe has been identified as the cause of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Melting ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland are elevating sea levels at an unexpectedly high rate.

People who lack the ability to feel pain also cannot detect odors.

—compiled by Shatila Zaman, Elissa Trieu and Mikel Dermer

Scientists in Britain have discovered a protein which may be used as a target for a new tuberculosis vaccine. This discovery from Imperial College London could be a first step in the eradication of tuberculosis because though a TB vaccine currently exists — the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, or BCG vaccine — it is not highly effective. Ajit Lalvani a professor and chair in Infection Diseases at Imperial College London who led the research, said even though most of the world’s population has been vaccinated against the disease with BCG, nine million new cases are reported every year.

The newly identified protein, called EspC, provokes a strong immune response in the human body. It is almost exclusively produced by tuberculosis bacteria. This means it is a good candidate for a vaccine, stimulating the production of specific antibodies to fight this disease.

Although many agree that the research is promising, the creation of a new tuberculosis vaccine ready for human use is still a long way off. Until further research is conducted on the protein, there is no guarantee that it will yield a functional vaccine or that it will be any more effective than the current BCG vaccine.

—compiled by Haley McKey

For the first time, a spacecraft successfully entered the orbit of the planet Mercury earlier this month. The robotic explorer known as Messenger was sent by NASA to gather data about Mercury, one of the most hostile planets in our solar system because of its proximity to the sun.

Scientists believe Mercury may hold clues to planetary evolution, providing more insight into how Earth was formed.

Messenger is now in orbit 96 million miles away from Earth and only 29 million miles from the sun. To withstand the extreme heat, the spacecraft is equipped with a ceramic shield to protect the instruments used to view and analyze Mercury’s surface. Messenger’s chief engineer Eric Finnegan said its orbit is “as close as you can possibly get to being perfect” — precise enough to gather data, but not so close that instruments or the spacecraft itself are at risk of being damaged.

The Messenger mission originally was proposed to NASA more than a decade ago. Throughout the following years, the Messenger team analyzed data, planned and built the spacecraft in preparation for the Mercury mission. Messenger’s successful orbit is the result of thousands of hours of intensive research and labor. Principal investigator Sean Solomon told the BBC, “To say the science team is excited … is a huge understatement. We’re really pumped.”

—compiled by Haley McKey

Dr. William Petri and a team of medical students and faculty traveled to Bangladesh to study malnutrition. They will use the Gates’ donation to return next month to focus on the effectiveness of polio vaccinations. Photo courtesy William A. Petri, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.

A group of University students and faculty recently received a $14.7 million donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support research to improve the effectiveness of polio vaccinations in Bangladesh.

Dr. William Petri, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health at the Medical School, is a co-leader of the Performance of Rotavirus and Oral polio Vaccines in Developing countries study. The purpose of the study is to discover why the polio vaccines given to children in developing countries are only half as effective as the same ones administered in wealthier nations.

The money will allow the team to travel to Bangladesh in April to study the immune systems of 1,000 children. The donation will help set up clinics providing medical care for the children and be used to hire field assistants who will visit the children twice a week. The donation also will ensure the vaccines are readily available. Because no new or experimental drugs will be used, there will be minimal risk for the children who are studied, Petri said.

“We are trying to understand better why the polio vaccine is not working,” he said.

He hypothesized one possible reason for the difference in effectiveness of the vaccines may be that children in poor areas are more susceptible to diarrheal diseases.

“Administering an injection vaccine [after an oral one] may boost response to the oral vaccine,” Petri said. When vaccines are given orally, chronic diarrhea infections inhibit the children from responding positively to them, he said. Petri added the problem comes not from lack of adequate vaccination, but from poor response.

“9.5 million children die every year before their fifth birthday,” Petri said. “Major causes [of this] are diarrheal diseases and pneumonia … the number one cause of diarrheal disease is rotavirus.” He said the impact of increasing the effectiveness of the vaccine even from 50 to 55 percent could save thousands of children’s lives.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $10 billion this decade to vaccine research.

“Vaccines are a miracle — with just a few doses, they can prevent deadly diseases for a lifetime,” Melinda Gates said when the couple announced the pledge during a press conference last January. “We’ve made vaccines our number one priority at the Gates Foundation because we’ve seen firsthand their incredible impact on children’s lives.”

The foundation also has supported the University’s research in the past, Petri said. Petri and University students went to Bangladesh last year to study malnutrition, which led to the recent donation, he said.

“The Gates Foundation came to us because we were already studying a related issue,” Petri said. “We suspected that the problem with malnutrition could be linked to the problems with rotavirus.”

Last Friday, 7,750 applicants were notified of their acceptance to the University’s Class of 2015.

Of the record total 24,005 students who applied to the University, 32 percent were offered admission — the same rate as last year. Because of the jump in the number of applications, however, 538 more applicants received offers.

The University’s goal is to enroll 3,360 students into the new class, according to a University press release. This 120-person increase would help the University attain its goal of raising enrollment by 1,500 during the next five years. About 84 of the additional 120 students will be Virginians.

University President Teresa A. Sullivan announced this target number in response to Gov. Bob McDonnell’s call to award 100,000 additional degrees to Virginians by 2026 in an effort to provide more affordable education opportunities to students in the commonwealth.

Scott Miller, senior associate director of financial aid, said the financial aid office is in the process of calculating need-based aid for the new students. He added the process is in “most areas ahead of where they were last year.”

Students will receive aid offers by April 5.

Of those offered admission, 94.5 percent rank in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating classes, Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts said in a press release. Their median SAT score was 2,070 on a 2,400-point scale, with the middle 50 percent scoring between 1,950 and 2,210. The admission committee also considers extracurricular involvement, essays, recommendations, leadership and citizenship, among many factors, as they evaluate applications, according to the release.

“This group of applicants was among the most talented we’ve seen,” Roberts said. “Selecting a first-year class from so many terrific students is always a challenge, but we’re very excited about this group of high school seniors.”

—compiled by Margaret Furr

Gov. Bob McDonnell signed a bill into law Saturday that will impose new regulations on abortion clinics in Virginia, which critics say may limit access to abortions.

The law will require abortion clinics that offer first-trimester abortions to meet the same standards as hospitals instead of physician’s offices, where colonoscopies may be performed.

“The legislation is meant to provide safeguards to women who are going to these clinics for treatment,” McDonnell spokesperson Jeff Caldwell said in an email. “The legislation requires that these outpatient surgery centers meet certain criteria to protect patients’ health.”

These regulations would require clinics to change architecturally, said Jessica Honke, director of public policy of the Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia. “They would have to build to specific code regulations like certain widths of a doorway and height of a ceiling, even to the kind of grass that you have outside.”

A new Planned Parenthood health center in Richmond was built to meet these regulations preemptively, Honke said, noting the project cost $4 million.

“It would be very expensive for these health centers to change their buildings to meet regulations,” Honke said. Planned Parenthoods would have to meet these expensive changes or have to stop providing the service, “which means that women wouldn’t have access to abortion,” she added.

David Nova, vice president of Planned Parenthood Health Systems, said the governor’s action may limit services.

“Anything that requires us to be a type of hospital will likely increase administrative costs, which would make all of our services more difficult for women to access,” Nova said.

Many of the health centers provide contraception, HIV testing and cancer screenings, Nova said, and about 95 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provides are preventative in nature.

“But if they could not afford to stay open, they would have to close their doors and stop providing their services as well,” Honke said.

Nova said he believed the legislation was intended to limit abortions, and that it particularly will impact the underprivileged.

“If you are wealthy and insured, you can quietly go to your OBGYN and get your abortion procedure,” Nova said, adding this is not the case for women who are poor or uninsured who rely on the abortion clinics for services. “It’s affecting those that have the least ability to access care.”

Proponents of the bill argue that its purpose is not to limit abortions, but to make them safer and more hygienic.

Senate Bill 924 states it aims to “assure the environmental protection and the life safety of its patients, employees and the public.”

The bill will go to the Board of Health, which will decide upon the terms of regulation Sept. 15.

The bill was passed through what is called emergency regulation, attached to Bill 924 sent to the Senate. The bill originally included mandates concerning hospitals, nursing homes and regulations about disaster preparedness, Honke said. At first, “it had nothing to do with abortion health centers,” she said.

Once it reached the House, the bill was amended to include abortion clinics. The amendment was offered by Del. Kathy Byron, R-Lynchburg.

“[The amendment] was just heard on the floor without any public comments,” Honke said.

The Board of Health will research other states and their laws concerning abortion clinics. A meeting will be held and regulations will be discussed Sept. 15. If the regulations are approved, they will go into effect Jan. 1, 2012.

Public input will be sought during the board’s meeting prior to adopting the new regulations, Caldwell said, which will be “required in the law to be established within six months of the passage of the legislation.”

Honke said she hopes clinics where abortions are performed will not be categorized as either hospitals or ambulatory surgical centers, but designated an entirely new category.

“My guess is they will create a fourth category of a type of hospital that would be specific to those who provide four or more first trimester abortions a month,” Nova said.

Honke also added she hopes these regulations are based on medicine and science, not on politics.

The Sports Law Symposium held at Harvard Law School this past weekend brought to light the lack of a systematic legal protocol for sport-induced head injuries at the collegiate level.

Boston lawyer Matt Henshon, a former Princeton basketball player, said he believes this lack may result in legal challenges regarding the liability of injured players.

“[The current protocol is] either school by school or conference by conference,” he said, discussing formal regulations regarding concussions.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association advises each school to develop individual strategies for dealing with head injuries.

“Each institution/conference should consult with its own sports medicine staff, legal counsel and athletics staff during the development and implementation of a plan,” the NCAA’s website says.

Without protocol restricting playing time for brain-injured players, “people are still getting hurt, and it’s getting worse,” Henshon said.

Most professional organizations such as the NFL have a defined list of protocol for players who suffer head injuries, he said. Henshon said “professional players understand the risk” and are compensated as a result.

Ethan Saliba, associate athletic director for sports medicine at the University, said head injuries may be getting worse as a result of “gear that allows athletes to run faster and hit harder.”

The liability concerns may not be as great at Virginia as they are at other schools, Saliba said. He noted Virginia athletes are required to sign forms expressing they understand the risks and will report any symptoms to the medical staff. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention helped create the form, which also provides signs and symptoms to look for, as well as the steps to take following an injury.

“The million dollar question is how long it takes to recover,” Saliba said. “For some athletes it can take a few weeks and for others a few days. It all just depends on how long it takes the concussion to normalize.”

The Virginia football team sustained a relatively low number of concussions this past year — nine — compared to the average number of concussions in a season — between 10 and 12, according to the football staff.

“It all comes down to whether or not players take [the dangers] seriously and understand the protocol for getting examined,” Henshon said.