BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO
PROMOTION of handwashing with soap is estimated to reduce diarrheal diseases by between 27 and 48 percent, it is reported.
This was reported by Erick Hale Senior WASH officer of the Live and Learn.
WASH officer Hale said according to the Demographic and Health Survey 2015 (DHS) which is the latest statics conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) it stated that washing hands with soap and the use of clean drinking water is likely reduce diarrhoea.
“Handwashing with soap and the use of clean drinking water could reduce the loss of nutrients diarrhea and reduce stunting in children under 5 by up to 15 percent,” said the DHS report.
He said according to the DHS reported it spelled out that chronic environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) has been the mina cause of the contamination of food items with fecal matter
Hale said the statistic specified that EED diminishes the intestines, capacity to absorb nutrients.
Also there is also a research proposing that a body facing EED cannot absorb nutrients because it is too busy fighting off disease.
He said children with diarrhoea not only eat less but able to absorb nutrients from food.
Hala uttered this makes future diarrhoea more likely, since undernourished children are more likely to develop diarrhoea.
DPM Manasseh Sogavare on behalf of the government said that hand has are strategically placed as a very important member of our body that do the biddings of our brains.
“So in reality, it is our brains that we need to properly develop and inform in this matter. That is why the Global Hand wash programme is established.
“It is designed to help us appreciate that the little things we do and are sometimes considered unimportant immensely to our health to a point where you could lose your life by neglecting it,” said Sogavare.
