That being said, provided I filter out all the muck & stuff with a bandana, all I would need to do is simply plop this into a bottle, and it will sterilize it?
the business end needs to be submerged in clear water for the appropriate time, depending upon how much water you are treating. 90 secs for 1 L.
Does it work well for all types of waterborne diseases (lets say whats common in the US in the woods-nothing exotic like in 3rd world countries)?
yep. go here:
steripen for a list of the uglies that this kills. if you look around the website you'll see numerous studies confirming it has a high kill rate.
i did find out the hard way that it doesn't work in the cold if the batteries are cold - they do recommend keeping the batteries warm if the
ambient temp = < 32F. i just didn't realize the temp was that cold at the time. yosemite @ 0600 in october. was hiking and was very comfortable!