Wells and Enteric Disease Transmission Trial (WET - Trial)

Wells and Enteric Disease Transmission - A Randomized Controlled Trial (WET- Trial)

Approximately 40 million people in the US are served by private wells, many of which are untreated. The investigators estimate that 1.29 million cases of gastrointestinal illness (GI) per year are attributed to consuming water from untreated private wells in the US. These cases of GI can cause a significant burden in terms of health care costs and lost work/school days, as well as increased risk to developing longer term health complications. This impact is magnified when accounting for vulnerable populations such as children under the age of 5, the elderly and the immunocompromised. The investigators are preparing to conduct the first household randomized controlled trial (RCT) to investigate whether consuming well water treated by ultraviolet light (UV) compared to consuming untreated private well water decreases the incidence of self-reported gastrointestinal illness and respiratory infections in children under 5. The investigators will collect illness symptom data using a combination of weekly text messages and online illness questionnaires.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Respiratory Viral Infection; Gastrointestinal Infection
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: Active household UV water treatment device; Device: Inactive household UV water treatment device

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 28
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19122
      • Temple University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 6 months to 4 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Child resides in Berks, Bucks, Chester, Lancaster, Lehigh, or Montgomery County in Pennsylvania
• Household is served by a private well
• Participant child is under the age of 5 (under 4 at time of enrollment), who is a full-time resident of the home and drinks untreated well water (75% or more of water consumption must be from untreated well water)
• Parent/guardian has access to a phone with texting capabilities

Exclusion Criteria:

• Child participant is immunocompromised
• Child participant has a chronic gastrointestinal condition
• Child takes daily oral steroids
• Household treats water before consumption (with the exception of water softeners)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Active UV Device; A household water treatment device with a lamp emitting germicidal UV. The device will be operated at 50 millijoule per square centimeter to treat >99.9% of all bacteria, protozoa, and most viruses in water supplies.	Device: Active household UV water treatment device; This point-of-entry treatment device will use germicidal UV to treat all of the well water used in the home.
Sham Comparator: Inactive UV Device; A device that appears identical to the active comparator device except the lamp will not emit germicidal UV.	Device: Inactive household UV water treatment device; This sham device will use a lamp not emitting germicidal UV.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Incident gastrointestinal illness	The investigators will collect data on the presence of gastrointestinal illness symptoms through weekly text messages. Households that report symptoms through text messages will be directed to an online illness questionnaire to characterize the symptoms (incidence, severity, duration, diarrhea, vomiting, coughing, etc.), febrile episodes, as well as relevant exposure information such as recent travel, exposure to ill persons, etc. Incident gastrointestinal illness (GI) is defined by the reporting of a minimum of three episodes of diarrhea or vomiting in a 24 hour period. Each illness will be considered distinct when separated by ≥ 6 symptom-free days.	12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Temple University
• Collaborators: Pennsylvania Department of Health
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Heather Murphy, PhD, Assistant Professor

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Hellard ME, Sinclair MI, Harris AH, Kirk M, Fairley CK. Cost of community gastroenteritis. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2003 Mar;18(3):322-8. doi: 10.1046/j.1440-1746.2003.02959.x.
• Johnson TD, Belitz K, Lombard MA. Estimating domestic well locations and populations served in the contiguous U.S. for years 2000 and 2010. Sci Total Environ. 2019 Oct 15;687:1261-1273. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.036. Epub 2019 Jun 6.
• Roberts JA, Cumberland P, Sockett PN, Wheeler J, Rodrigues LC, Sethi D, Roderick PJ; Infectious Intestinal Disease Study Executive. The study of infectious intestinal disease in England: socio-economic impact. Epidemiol Infect. 2003 Feb;130(1):1-11. doi: 10.1017/s0950268802007690.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 30, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 1, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): May 1, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 3, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 4, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): February 6, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): September 9, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 2, 2025
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: respiratory infection; private wells; groundwater; acute gastrointestinal illness
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Infections; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Respiratory Tract Infections
• Other Study ID Numbers: 25665 (Pilot Trial)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No