Celebrating health across the globe
On World Health Day – commemorated on 7 April every year – hygiene experts say global health has forgotten its most important weapon.Hygiene is vital in fighting off a whole range of diseases, including Covid-19, yet policymakers and others fail to invest, promote, and research it, say hygiene experts at the Reckitt Global Hygiene Institute (RGHI).
Instead, vaccines, antibiotics and alternative treatments take centre stage leaving this critical health component to wane.
Hygiene, according to the RGHI, is the conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases.
“We are sounding the alarm to say unless we increase investment in hygiene now our other health interventions will only get us so far,” said Dame Sally Davies, UK Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance. “We should not need to use antibiotics just because a person cannot or does not wash their hands properly.”
Diseases such as cholera, typhoid, intestinal worm infections and polio can all be contracted as a result of poor hygiene as too can flu and the common cold, and of course, Covid. While hand washing sounds simple even with clean water, the uptake of regular practices requires behaviour and social change within a community. This isn’t always easy to achieve, especially if there is a lack of resources, knowledge and skills.
“This is why more research, investment and attention is needed in the hygiene space,” Simon Sinclair, Executive Director of RGHI said. “There are still pockets around the world where there are vast clean water and hygiene gaps. This must be remedied if we’re to achieve critical health milestones such as good health for all by 2030, as per the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”
Lack of clean water
According to the World Health Organisation, 2 in 5 schools and 1 in 4 health care centres worldwide still lack basic hand-washing facilities. Then, there are communities that lack clean water to wash with, who live closely alongside animals, or whose living spaces have dirt floors; all of which constitute challenges to maintaining good hygiene.
Additionally, 500 million women, girls, and people who menstruate don’t have what they need to manage their menstrual cycles — access to wash facilities, information, and sanitary products.
“Much more needs to be done in global hygiene beyond providing water and soap. As a first step, we need to identify what the barriers are to fixing these challenges and addressing these gaps. That requires research. From there, policymakers and figureheads can better allocate funding to eliminate these issues,” Professor Albert Ko, Professor and Chair of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health said: “Unless this happens, the health of communities will continue to be in jeopardy, we will be ill-prepared for the next pandemic, and economies will be stunted.”
“There is still such a long way to go in improving access to water and soap for improved hygiene. As a first step, we need to identify what the barriers are to fixing these challenges and addressing these gaps. That requires research. From there, policymakers and figureheads can better allocate funding to eliminate these issues,” Sinclair, continued. “Unless this happens, the health of communities will continue to be in jeopardy, we will be ill-prepared for the next pandemic, and economies will be stunted.”
7 April marks the World Health Organisation’s annual World Health Day. Celebrated since 1948, it is a day designed to draw international attention to various health issues. This year’s theme focuses on “our planet, our health”.