Why is it Needed

As Reported by the World Bank

•  The promotion of hygiene has been proven to be the most cost effective health action to reduce disease. 

• 2.3 billion people lack access to basic hygiene services, and 1.6 billion people have access to handwashing facilities that lack water and soap.

• Worldwide, 70% of people use basic hygiene services as of 2020.

• Research shows  that washing hands with soap and water could reduce deaths from diarrheal disease by up to 50%

• Researchers estimate that if everyone routinely washed their hands, one million deaths a year could be prevented.

• A large percentage of foodborne disease outbreaks are spread by contaminated hands. Hand Washing can reduce the risk of foodborne illness and other infections.

• Hand Washing can reduce the risk of respiratory illnesses, like colds, in the general population by 16–21%.

• The use of an alcohol-based hand sanitizer in U.S. classrooms reduced absenteeism due to infection by about 20% overall among 16 elementary schools and 6,000 students.

Handwashing education in the community:

• • Reduces diarrheal illness in people with weakened immune systems by 58%

  • Reduces absenteeism due to gastrointestinal illness in schoolchildren by 29–57%

• More than 50% of healthy people have Staphylococcus aureus living in or on their nasal passages, throats, hair, or skin.

•  Within the first 15 minutes of bathing, the average person sheds 6 x 106 colony forming units (CFU) of Staphylococcus aureus. Showering before entering recreational waters (such as pools) prevent the spread of germs by reducing the microbial load.

• The average individual swimmer contributes at least 0.14 grams of fecal material to the water, usually within the first 15 minutes of entering. Showering with soap before swimming helps stop the spread of germs by removing fecal material from the body.

• Trachoma, the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide, is related to the lack of facial hygiene. An estimated 41 million people suffer from active trachoma, and nearly 10 million people are visually impaired or irreversibly blind as a result of trachoma.

• Inadequate contact lens hygiene, such as failure to properly disinfect lenses, increases the risk of acquiring the eye infection Acanthamoeba keratitis.

• The spread of pinworms can be reduced by proper hygiene, including clipping nails and showering children immediately after they wake in the morning.