Tag Archives: Global Handwashing Day

Handwashing: Is it really all that simple?

Water and Sanitation, , , ,

Happy Global Handwashing Day! Today we feature a piece authored by Kerry Gallo of Children Without Worms:

By: Kerry Gallo, Children Without Worms

Since joining Children Without Worms (CWW) earlier this year, I’ve spent most of my time thinking about neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)—in particular, intestinal worms in kids, and how deworming medications like albendazole and mebendazole can make kids healthy. But last week, I had the opportunity to step out of the NTD space and into the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) world for a few days by attending the Water and Health: Where Science Meets Policy Conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

I’ve written before about the importance of partnerships between the NTD and WASH sectors. CWW advocates for the WASHED Framework (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene Education and Deworming) as a comprehensive strategy for prevention and treatment of intestinal worms. Our role is to partner with drug companies to coordinate the donations of deworming medications, such as albendazole from GlaxoSmithKline and mebendazole from Johnson & Johnson. But since we are not WASH program implementers, we turn to our partners to complement deworming with the administration of hygiene education and improvements to water and sanitation infrastructure.

It was in the role of partner and advocate for WASHED that I attended the conference and met with many colleagues representing various WASH organizations. One event that was discussed with excitement was Global Handwashing Day.

Handwashing—what could be more simple? It seems like such an incredibly basic activity to us, but for kids in low resource settings around the world, it may not be so simple. Continue reading →

Celebrating Global Handwashing Day

Global Health, Uncategorized, , , , , Erin Hohlfelder

Today at the Global Network, we’re busy celebrating Global Handwashing Day–a holiday that makes up in importance what it lacks in candy or costumes.  Global Handwashing Day focuses on children and schools, encouraging students around the world to wash their hands with soap.

Global Handwashing Day Logo, 2009

Global Handwashing Day Logo, 2009

To many of us in the developed world, save perhaps for germophobic mothers, Global Handwashing Day may seem silly or obsolete.  For others, the Day may only seem relevant in light of the recent H1N1 outbreak.  But for hundreds of millions of people in the developing world who lack basic water and sanitation infrastructure, handwashing with soap is a critical way to ward off disease that is often difficult to access.

As the Global Health Progress blog notes,  “Cholera, rotavirus infections, and other diarrheal diseases make up the second largest killer of children worldwide…[and] many of these deaths can be prevented by access to clean water and handwashing with soap.”  In addition to these infections, poor sanitation and hygiene directly contribute to a number of neglected tropical diseases, but fortunately simple improvements can reduce their immense burden.  In particular, the SAFE Strategy (Surgery, Antibiodics, Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvements in water and sanitation access) for treatment of trachoma is an innovative, WHO-approved strategy that demonstrates how water access and hygiene efforts are critical to disease control.

Our charge to you, then, in honor of GHD 2009?  Go forth, wash your hands with soap, and read more about the Global Network’s efforts alongside collaborators such as the Inter-American Development Bank to integrate disease control advocacy with water, sanitation, and hygiene efforts.