Hacker News Reader

that's why you put iodine tablets in and/or cook water.

Source? The LifeStraw claims to filter out 99.9999% of bacteria, which makes sense, since bacteria are large and thereby easily filtered relative to other contaminants like viruses and dissolved metals.

Typical portable water filters do remove bacteria, but not viruses.

Bacterial removal depends on the size of the filter. Microfilters remove many bacteria, including Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, and E. coli.

Ultrafilters do most bacteria (and many viruses).

See https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/home-water-treatme...

Lifestraw, for example, does 99.9999% of bacteria. See http://www.lifestraw.com/faqs/