Lab-on-a-chip devices for microbial monitoring and detection in water

According to the World Health Organization, diarrhoea is one of the four main diseases caused by environmental exposure and represents the most common water related disease. In developing countries, the access to safe drinking water is still utopian. Moreover, water is not an endless resource anymore; therefore alternative water supplies need to be investigated. Since water is becoming a worldwide issue, there is an increasing effort to ensure its quality and safety through the development of rapid and effective system of diagnostic which could be applied even in remote places in poor countries. The possibility to diagnose on site and in real time an infectious agent is one of the most challenging goals in lab-on-a-chip technologies. This review describes and discusses the potentialities of microfluidic technology in this new emerging field.