Hand washing can halve diarrhoeal deaths
Proper and regular hand washing could halve diarrhoeal deaths of under-five children in Bangladesh.
The Smiling Sun Franchise Programme (SSFP) revealed this at a press conference held at the National Press Club in the city yesterday.
SSFP organised the conference to announce its month-long campaign to promote hand washing across the country with a view to commemorate the third annual Global Hand Washing Day on October 15.
"In Bangladesh, diarrhoea is a major killer and about 17,500 children below 5 years of age die every year due to diarrhoea alone," said health officer Arefin Amal Islam of SSFP.
"Hand washing with soap at key periods can reduce diarrhoeal deaths in children by 50 percent, and this is one of the most inexpensive ways to prevent many waterborne and respiratory diseases," he added.
Also, SSFP official Juan Carlos Negrette said proper hand washing is a simple, healthy and cost effective way to avoid diseases like Diarrhoea and ARI, which take lives of many children every year.
To communicate this message to the masses, the SSFP collaborated with Advanced Chemical Industries (ACI) Limited Bangladesh to train nearly five lakh people in 64 districts of the country on how to wash hands appropriately, the speakers said.
The programme is being conducted from the 323 SSFP clinics throughout the country, starting from yesterday, the speakers added.
As for the rural people, they either tend to use ash to wash their hands or simply rinse them with water, said Islam.
A 2008 baseline study of Institute of Cholera and Diarrhoeal Diseases and Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B), presented after the conference, shows that rural people tend to wash hands in only 55 percent of the 20,546 'critical times' observed before preparing or eating foods, before feeding a child, after defecation and such.
These hand-rinsing practices should be transformed into washing hands with soaps, said Islam.
"Soaps have detergents that takes away the greasy elements from your hand, and thus are more effective in fighting germs," he added.
SSFP Managing Director Brigadier General (Retd) Dr Shahid Khan, ACI Business Director Ashraf Bin Taj and Business Manager Qamrul Hasan were also present at the press conference.
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