Although promotion of safe hygiene is the single most cost-effective means of preventing infectious disease, investment in hygiene is low both in the health and in the water and sanitation sectors. Evidence shows the benefit of improved hygiene, especially for improved handwashing and safe stool disposal. A growing understanding of what drives hygiene behaviour and creative partnerships are pro...

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are crucial but often underplayed parts of the prevention and control of a number of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Access to safe water and adequate sanitation, together with good hygiene practices, can reduce the transmission of some NTDs, for example trachoma and intestinal worms (page 29). Trachoma is transmitted by flies, fomites (e.g. skin, hair, ...

of keeping the public on board. Without the trust and confidence of the public, introducing genetics into mainstream NHS activities could be a high risk enterprise. Ministerial fingers were burned by the fiasco surrounding the introduction of genetically modified foods and crops, and the Department of Health is determined that this must not happen with the introduction of genetic medicine. Stri...

BACKGROUND Hand hygiene is considered as an important means of infection control. We explored whether guided hand hygiene together with transmission-limiting behaviour reduces infection episodes and lost days of work in a common work environment in an open cluster-randomized 3-arm intervention trial. METHODS A total of 21 clusters (683 persons) were randomized to implement hand hygiene with s...

PURPOSE This review was done to explore the impact of water treatment, hygiene, and sanitary interventions on improving child health outcomes such as absenteeism, infections, knowledge, attitudes, and practices and adoption of point-of-use water treatment. METHODS A literature search was conducted using the databases PubMed and Google scholar for studies published between 2009 and 2012 and fo...

INTRODUCTION Improved hygiene is one of the most effective means of reducing disease occurrence. However, a complete understanding of the factors that contribute to such improvement are not clear. This study explored factors that facilitate and/or impede hygiene behavior in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) intervention areas using qualitative research techniques. METHODS The Bangladesh Ru...

In developing countries, the drinking water supply is still an open issue. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 68% of the population has access to improved sources of drinking water. Moreover, some regions are affected by geogenic contaminants (e.g., fluoride and arsenic) and the lack of access to sanitation facilities and hygiene practices causes high microbiological contamination of drinking water in...

Comprehensively understanding water consumption behavior is necessary to design efficient and effective water use strategies. Despite global efforts to identify the factors that affect domestic water consumption, those related to domestic water use in rural regions have not been sufficiently studied, particularly in villages that have gained access to improved water supply. To address this gap,...

BACKGROUND In the 1980s Vibrio cholerae was found to be an autochthonous resident of aquatic environments. As result, ingestion of undercooked, contaminated fish has been associated with cholera transmission. An alternative mechanism of transmission associated with fish was hypothesised by Schürmann et al. in 2002. He described a cholera case that was more likely to have been infected by contam...