Aquagenx is Sponsor of 2014 Water and Health Conference Attended by Global Leaders in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

    CHAPEL HILL, NC, September 24, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Aquagenx, a provider of innovative microbial water quality testing products that detect potential health risks, is a sponsor of the 2014 Water and Health Conference and will be exhibiting the Compartment Bag Test (CBT). The conference is organized by the UNC Water Institute and will be held at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on October 13-17, 2014.

This year's Water and Health Conference will examine drinking water supply, sanitation, hygiene and water resources in both the developing and developed worlds with a strong public health emphasis.

Mark D. Sobsey, inventor of the CBT, will give a verbal presentation at the conference, "Factors Influencing Laboratory Evaluation of Point-of-Use Water Treatment Technologies: Effects of Testing Conditions on Performance." Sobsey is a Keenan Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. He is internationally known for research, teaching and service in environmental health microbiology and virology and in water, sanitation and hygiene, with more than 200 published papers and reports.

Says Sobsey, "Here in the U.S. we are accustomed to safe drinking water as a given, but this is not the case in the developing world or even in certain areas of the developed world. There is a global public health crisis due to contaminated drinking water that causes millions of deaths every year. Individuals and communities around the world will experience accelerated public health gains from improved water supplies that are regularly monitored for quality before and after treatment."

"Aquagenx is proud to be a conference sponsor," continues Sobsey, "and we're pleased to demonstrate how the Aquagenx CBT is a vital tool used throughout the world to test and monitor water quality and help prevent further escalation of this public health calamity."

In 2014, the Aquagenx CBT was recognized as an Exemplary U.S. Water Technology by the U.S. Water Partnership. The CBT received a USAID Pioneers Prize Honorable Mention in 2013 and a LAUNCH Water Innovation Prize in 2010. In December 2013, the CBT was requested by the Government of the Philippines Ministry of Health to assist with post-disaster restoration of critical water services following Super Typhoon Haiyan. The test was also featured by USAID on the cover of its 2013 innovations catalog, "The Catalog: Version 1.0."

Aquagenx provides innovative water quality testing products that detect potential health risks and help eliminate the millions of annual deaths due to contaminated drinking water.

The Compartment Bag Test (CBT) is a portable, simple and self-contained test that quantifies the Most Probable Number of E. coli bacteria in a 100 milliliter water sample to determine if drinking water poses a health risk. Anyone, anywhere can use the CBT with little training using easy steps that generate visual, color change results. No electricity, sample transportation, lab-based analysis and processing, specialized technicians or extra, expensive equipment are needed.

The CBT has versatile applications for low resource settings and household level testing by individuals, government agencies, NGOs, the military, water utilities and disaster/emergency responders. The test is also effective for agricultural and recreational waters and private wells.

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