Tomorrow is Global Handwashing Day:
Hand Washing Day: Where health care is lacking, a simple means of prevention is washing hands. As part of the United Nations’ International Year of Sanitation, October 15 has been declared the first Global Handwashing Day. Events sponsored by UNICEF on five continents are aimed at having some 200 million people, mostly children, wash their hands with soap. Statistics put out by the organization back up what your mother probably always told you: Washing hands at two key moments during the day –- before eating or after using the toilet — can reduce diarrhea rates among children under five by almost 50 percent and respiratory infections by 23 percent.
Diarrhea and pneumonia together kill nearly 3.5 million children each year. Yet the organization says global hand washing rates at those critical moments range from zero to 34 percent.
Thank you for shining a light on these often underestimated and even more often unknown ills. Diseases like pneumonia, diarrhea, and tuberculosis kill children in masses every day - and it's sad to know that a few simple hygienic actions could prevent so much death.
Posted by: Lateef | Oct 15, 2008 at 09:37 PM